From: Jacob Patterson
To: Lemos, June
Subject: Public Comment -- 2/27/2023 CC Mtg., Item No. 5G, Draft Minutes Date: Friday, February 24, 2023 1:30:21 PM
City Council & Staff,
Although I acknowledge more detailed minutes are not required and the City can safely just create pure action minutes, I am wondering why the minutes only list a brief summary of the Council discussion for some action items and not for others. Whatever we do probably should be consistent.
For example, the draft minutes list a summary of the discussion for Item No. 5G that was pulled by Bernie for amendment--I don't think your amendment makes any sense and is likely won't be able to be implemented despite what Keith told you because I don't think you can effectively transfer the City's regulatory compliance costs off onto the public unless they receive some sort of private benefit from what is happening and then you can only charge cost-recovery fees. (The person submitting the comments doesn't receive any benefit from the requirement to have the comment available for public review at the meeting; the public in general is benefited, as is the applicant if it is a land use public hearing, who have a right to be informed about all relevant information and input that is being considered by the legislative body when they make their decisions and take action on an agenda item.) There is also a summary of the discussion for Conduct of Business Item No. 8A, which has a very brief entry for the "discussion". Item Nos. 8B, 8C, and 8D don't even have any discussion heading at all, let alone a brief summary.
Similarly, the public comments in the minutes are also inconsistent with most agenda items merely listing the names of the speakers or "none" but item No. 8B actually provides a brief summary of what the commenters presented in their comments.
Although I don't think you necessarily need to amend these minutes, I recommend future minutes follow a consistent format and the substance also be treated similarly across items.
Providing a little more information is usually a good idea in case minutes need to be reviewed in the future rather than having to watch meeting videos to find out what was said and discussed. If we are going to simply prepare pure action minutes with no substance other than the motions and votes on the formal action taken, we might as well be consistent about it.
Regards,
--Jacob