Menlo Park Councilman Andy Cohen has changed his mind about the truncated form of meeting minutes the City Council recently approved on a trial basis.
At the council’s Dec. 16 meeting, Mr. Cohen had joined his fellow council members in approving the use of “action” minutes, which don’t recap the council’s discussion of an issue, as the previously used “summary” minutes do. Instead, the “action” minutes just report any actions taken and the vote.
Since that meeting, Mr. Cohen has called “action” minutes “the very antithesis of open and transparent government process,” blasting Councilman John Boyle for “squelching” a discussion of whether the council should reconsider its original decision.
“It’s black and white,” Mr. Cohen said in an interview. “There is less transparency with ‘action’ minutes.”
At its Jan. 13 meeting, he asked the council to consider reviewing the decision, saying that several of his political advisers had researched the efficacy and availability of existing technology to stream video of council meetings, and found it to be lacking. (Council members had cited the video record of each meeting, which can be found on DVDs at the library or through files stored on the city’s Web site, as an adequate replacement for the more thorough minutes.)
Mr. Cohen said he is convinced that the technology is too complicated for many in the community to use, and that it doesn’t work on every operating system.
Even if he were satisfied with the video technology, Mr. Cohen said, he no longer favors the abbreviated form of minutes. He “did not have enough facts” to make an informed decision the first time around, he said.
Mr. Cohen’s motion to reconsider at the Jan. 13 meeting failed to get a second. The council will consider whether to permanently adopt “action” minutes in March.
Dispute with Boyle
At the Jan. 13 meeting, Councilman Boyle seemed irked that Mr. Cohen wanted to revisit the vote. Mr. Boyle argued that under Robert’s Rules of Order — a guide to conducting legislative meetings — a request for reconsideration can be submitted only during the meeting at which the decision was first made, or the day after that meeting. City Attorney Bill McClure responded that city policy allows for reconsideration to be discussed at the next regular meeting. (The council hadn’t met since Dec. 16, when the council voted to adopt the trial.)
“It is interesting that John Boyle claims he is for open and inclusive government,” Mr. Cohen said. He added that he sees “major inconsistencies” between Mr. Boyle’s advocacy for more transparency in closed sessions, and his discouragement of a re-vote on the minutes issue.
Mr. Boyle disagreed with Mr. Cohen’s assertion that “action” minutes are necessarily less transparent than “summary” minutes.
“I don’t agree that it’s black and white,” Mr. Boyle said in an interview, arguing that he has pushed for transparent government “as much or more than anyone else on council.”
He maintains that “summary” minutes can distort the record, because they don’t capture the subtleties of conversation and “often will mislead you as to (council members’) intent because of their incompleteness.” Video provides a more precise record, he said. He added that it’s relatively easy to scan the video files of council meetings on the city’s Web site to find a particular moment in the meeting, now that the city is indexing the video with more detail.
Of Mr. Boyle’s explanation for his opposition to “summary” minutes, Mr. Cohen said, “That’s no answer.”
“The idea that detailed minutes are not accurate is clearly an inadequate reason for supporting (‘action’ minutes),” he continued.
Mr. Boyle denied that he had single-handedly blocked Mr. Cohen’s request for reconsideration.
“It’s not my fault,” he said. “Nobody seconded it.”
Though the council approved the streamlined form of minutes for only a three-month trial, Mr. Cohen said he submitted the request for reconsideration because he was “not even willing to allow a trial period.” He cited concerns about transparency, as well as the potential cost to the city of retroactively preparing “summary” minutes, should the council decide to revert to that system in March.
That’s an insufficient reason to revisit the topic, according to Mr. Boyle.
“We made a decision, it’s not life and death, and it’s one of those rare decisions that’s completely reversible,” he said. “I respect the fact that Andy changed his mind, but the idea that we should reconsider it because a handful of people who have Andy’s ear complained to him … we should be spending our time on bigger issues, not this.”
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