From:Brad Anderson
To:Kristie Ramos, CMC
Subject:Public Comment, Agenda Item: 12. City of Rancho Mirage Council meeting of December 19, 2024 (1:PM) Date:Tuesday, December 17, 2024 1:55:29 PM
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December 17, 2024
City of Rancho Mirage
City Council / City Hall
69825 Hwy 111
Rancho Mirage, CA. 92270
Attention: Clerk of the Board /
Re: Written letter to be entered in the Public record and made available for public Inspection for the December 19, 2024 (1:PM) City of Rancho Mirage Council (and other self-appointed organizations) Public meeting - Agenda Item: 12. (Proposed action to censor official Public Records (recorded written meeting minutes)
Dear current Elected and Appointed City Council members, Please review the written statements listed below prior to the consideration of Agenda Item: 12. (Proposed action to adopt an extreme reduction method of recording public written meeting minutes).
This letter is in opposition of this organization (City of Rancho Mirage) imposing the action of (term used: "Action Minutes") to record (written meeting minutes) of ALL Rancho Mirage's Public meetings conducted under it's authority. City staff reported that In (2015) City Clerks Association of California (CCAC) developed "Guidelines for Preparing Minutes for Governmental Agencies". Now Nine (9) years after the CCAC (Non-Governmental agency) designed that method of less transparency and easier work loads for Governmental contracted (appointed Clerk position) and elected clerk's to preform less accurate information (streamline) written recorded meeting minutes, the City desires to change it's historically method of record documentation. It's reasonable to consider that current City Council members are willing to grasp at any available avenue to cloud transparency of their questionable management and operations.
It's reasonable to consider that City of Rancho Mirage officials are actively attempting to censor it's public retained written record of public meetings held under it's authority.
It's highly recommended to reduce the number of Rancho Mirage city approved Boards/sub- committees and commissions. City Council members have approved themselves as Ex- Officio members to ALL City Boards/sub-committees and commissions. Those council member's often attend and participate with those advisory committees and or commissions.
The action of reducing the long held and well established method of summary formatted meeting minutes would help "hide" the fact that City Council members drectly influence the actions taken by those committees and commissions.
Historical facts would be lost if summary formatted meeting minutes were to be eliminated.
California State best practices protocols and Installed State laws do not dictated that Video and or Audio recording be held "Permanently". It's unreasonable to "trust" Rancho Mirage City officials to retain Video records of it's City Council meeting and It's newly announced action of retaining it's Planning Commission* meetings permanently (*currently not accessible to the general public on the Citys YouTube channel).
It's critical to illustrate that Rancho Mirage City officials claim that they currently retained ALL committee and commission Public meeting audio recording only until written statements (minutes) are approved by the City Council and or it's appropriate Board/sub- committees/commissions. City officials have lacked transparency of it's operations - it's very reasonable to consider that current City Council member(s) can't be trusted to serve the best Interests of it's residents.
Summary minutes are written statements that describe verbal testimony provided during public meetings. It's not reasonable to have individuals seek out devices (Computers/Internet access) and or a private sector business (YouTube) channel to "watch" an official public meeting to obtain a summary of events taken during a city conducted meeting. Having non- summary (term used: Action Minutes) of recorded meeting minutes of audio recording and then having those audio recording destroyed (eliminated) would be nonsensical and extremely dangerous to consider implementation.
It's already been repeatedly demonstrated that Artificial Intelligence (AI) have the capabilities to capture verbalize statements and construct written words of those statements. It's reasonable to consider that (AI) could be assigned the task of capturing Public meeting minutes and Clerks could oversee that operation in the very near future. Interactions with ("Action Minute" procedures) of California (City of Rancho Mirage) Public meetings will harm true transparency of City operations (Public's Business).
It's clear that controlled information is the intention of City representatives - please consider that exteral business endeavour will fill the void of City censorship.
Sincerely,
Brad Anderson | 37043 Ferber Dr. Rancho Mirage, CA. 92270 Cc: