OML-AO-4845

                                                                                                December 21, 2009

E-Mail

TO:                

FROM:            Robert J. Freeman, Executive Director

The staff of the Committee on Open Government is authorized to issue advisory opinions.  The ensuing staff advisory opinion is based solely upon the information presented in your correspondence.

Dear

            I have received your letter in which you sought a response concerning “where does it state minutes are to be approved or accepted, since we meet once a month, law 106 item 3 states when minutes need to be available to the public, the committee could not possibly accept or approve the minutes without falling outside of the law...”

            In short, there is no provision of law of which I am aware that requires that minutes of meetings of public bodies be approved or accepted.

            Section 106 of the Open Meetings Law pertains to minutes of meetings and states that:

"1.  Minutes shall be taken at all open meetings of a public body which shall consist of a record or summary of all motions, proposals, resolutions and any other matter formally voted upon and the vote thereon.

2.  Minutes shall be taken at executive sessions of any action that is taken by formal vote which shall consist of a record or summary of the final determination of such action, and the date and vote thereon; provided, however, that such summary need not include any matter which is not required to be made public by the freedom of information law as added by article six of this chapter.

3.  Minutes of meetings of all public bodies shall be available to the public in accordance with the provisions of the freedom of information law within two weeks from the date of such meetings except that minutes taken pursuant to subdivision two hereof shall be available to the public within one week from the date of the executive session."

In view of the foregoing, it is clear in my opinion that minutes of open meetings must be prepared and made available "within two weeks of the date of such meeting."

            Although as a matter of practice or policy, many public bodies approve minutes of their meetings, there is nothing in the Open Meetings Law or other law known to me that requires that minutes be approved.  In the event that minutes have not been approved, to comply with the Open Meetings Law, it has consistently been advised that minutes be prepared and made available within two weeks, and that if the minutes have not been approved, they may be marked "unapproved", "draft" or "non-final", for example.  By so doing within the requisite time limitations, the public can generally know what transpired at a meeting; concurrently, the public is effectively notified that the minutes are subject to change.  If minutes have been prepared within less than two weeks, I believe that those unapproved minutes would be available as soon as they exist, and that they may be marked in the manner described above.

            I hope that the foregoing serves to clarify your understanding and that I have been of assistance.

RJF:jm

cc: Jay O’Connor