Town Council Minutes' Format Matter
Dec. 2005 - Jan. 2006
Wethersfield, CT
Press Release
by
Kenneth Sokolowski
Emailed on 1/4/2006
Council Reverses Itself
"Disapproves" Proposal for Minutes Format Change
Kenneth Sokolowski
www.wethersfield.net
Wethersfield, CT
Jan. 4, 2006
In a stunning reversal, the Town Council "disapproved" their own original motion to use the Rocky Hill "Lite" version of minutes for boards and commissions. It did so without removing the motion 'from the table' where it had been placed during the last Council meeting on Dec. 19, 2005.
The Hartford Courant, given the chance to attend last night, missed one of the most significant meetings of the history of the Wethersfield Town Council.
Two of their reporters who routinely "cover" Wethersfield events were unavailable to attend the meeting. Although the Courant had been additionally alerted to the importance of the meeting and the chief proposal, it did not send another reporter.
The Hartford Courant published nothing about the meeting in this morning's edition. A reporter from the Wethersfield Post however did attend.
As he entered the auditorium of the Silas Deane Middle School, where the Council has been meeting due to the prolonged renovations of the adjacent Wethersfield Town Hall, the Chair of the Council, Russell A. Morin, remarked that "the decision has been made not to adopt the proposal" to use, what has been called, the "Rocky Hill format" of the minutes for meetings.
When informed of the effort on the part of the public to prepare for that evening's public comments, he agreed that the public "has to do what it has to do."
And the public did.
Though the winter storm kept all but about a dozen members of the public from attending, half of those chose to speak, eloquently at times, during "public comments".
Among those who spoke were former Councilor and former Mayor Kitch Breen Czernicki, former Councilor Donna Hemmann, the webmaster of Wethersfield.net Dr.Ken Sokolowski, the webmaster of MyRockyHill.com Scott Coleman, and a member of the Wethersfield Taxpayers Association Robert Young (speaking personally and not on the behalf of the WTXA).
Czernicki stressed the value and importance of detailed minutes to not only the public but also to new members of boards and commissions. The proposed condensed format would not provide the context and continuity that a new member needs to appreciate the proceedings which led to the votes on motions. She urged the defeat of the proposal. Czernicki offered to email a copy of her remarks to the Town Clerk, Dolores Sassano. Hemmann too placed a high value on the continuation of the traditional minutes format.
Sokolowski spoke of descendants of the Mayflower, the American Revolution and members of the Armed Forces - still living in Wethersfield - who have contributed to the protection and preservation of the public's right to know and its right to oversee their elected officials. He pointed out that the Town of Wethersfield does not presently have the information technology infrastructure which would allow the use of abbreviated reporting of "motions and votes" in the guise of "minutes" unless they were supplemented with easily accessible, high quality preserved digital copies of councilors' and citizens' remarks. He urged members of the Council to "rise to level of patriots," by defeating this proposal for "eviscerated" minutes.
Coleman has been contending with the Town of Rocky Hill for access to information which should have been available and provided in a timely fashion under the Freedom of Information Act. He expressed the hope that Wethersfield would not take the path that Rocky Hill had taken. He offered the Council a copy of his remarks rather than just reading them.
Coleman also provided information to the Town Manager, Bonnie Therrien, about an expandable, versatile software program which might help Wethersfield comply with the FOIA. The software, which he described as e-Minutes, would allow a real-time production of the minutes and would allow Councilors to correct their remarks and would allow the public to addend theirs, all online.
Additionally, Attorney Barbara Ruhe read a letter from her father, George A Ruhe who was stuck out of state due to the weather. He had followed the developments leading up to this meeting via the Internet and emailed his remarks for her. He through her urged the council not to adopt the proposal. She agreed too with a hearty, "Amen!"
Wethersfield resident, Michael Cuddigan, quoted in an earlier Courant article, spoke in favor of maintaining the format of minutes which had been used prior to the Dec. 12, 2005, meeting. He noted that, apparently on her own, the Town Clerk, Dolores Sassano, had again greatly condensed the minutes for that meeting, which minutes were to be rubber stamped by the Council last night, two weeks later. He wondered why the Council had not raised any concern about the already reduced minutes of the Dec. 5th meeting, but instead approved them pro forma on Dec. 19.
Unlike some meetings of the Town Council, the public did not leave having made their concerns known. All stayed to see how it would play out.
And then the dominoes began to fall.
One by one each of the majority Councilors said, in so many words or less, that they could no longer support the change to Rocky Hill-styled minutes. Councilor Fortunato, moved to "disapprove" the proposal, which had never been taken from the table, and by unanimous vote the proposal died. Some members of the public likened this sudden reversal of the Council's position as having experienced "whiplash".
One final surprise: the Council voted to table the unapproved minutes of their meeting of the Dec. 19, 2005 and the directed the Sassano to bring the minutes up to the standard which Wethersfielders have said that they wanted and needed.
-W.N-
