City Council Shelves Summarized Meeting Minutes, For Now
The Port Angeles City Council has tabled their summarized format for meeting minutes.
The city council's format for the minutes will be tweaked some more and will probably be voted on again in another month.
The city council's format for the minutes will be tweaked some more and will probably be voted on again in another month.
posted by Tom Harper at 11:43 PM
12 Comments:
They should hire some consultants to sort it out for them.
LOL
Max, can you address this lack of transparency in city government?
Anonymous @ 5:22 AM...
I don't think there is anything wrong with summarized minutes to speed things up.
Other than a few visiting citizens it's the same folks in the meetings week after week so they already know what went on at the last meeting.
As long as the full minutes are available to those that would like to read them that should be good enough.
Some monkeys like to play this game called 'Roberts Rules of Order' but I figure that Roberts can go to hell so jump right to the problems, like street repairs.
And when is someone going to have nerve enough to make a motion to open the whorehouse back up?
Max, the PDN wants to talk with you. Call them!
Shortened meeting minutes make it difficult for citizens and city officials alike to go back in time and understand the context and circumstances surrounding decision-making. The "action minutes" do not reflect points of discussion or debate; they only record the text of motions made and voted-upon.
For example, maybe taxpayers today want to get a better understanding of why the City chose to get involved with the Gateway project. Reviewing the Council minutes from 7 to 12 years ago would show what discussions took place and would provide a better sense of the Council's deliberations and reasons for voting "yes" or "no". But - if shortened minutes had been used back then, all we would see today would be the bare motions to spend time and money and the votes for/against. There would be no summary of the debate, etc.
I find it significant that the move toward using shortened minutes is being driven wholly by city staff; council members themselves did not ask for this changed approach. If council members are dissatisfied with the results of the "action minutes" experiment, then it is totally appropriate for them to direct staff to return to preparing more detailed official minutes of the meetings.
Council members were elected by the people to govern and control the City's business. I appreciate it when they do their own thinking, and not act as automatic rubber stamps for whatever it is that staff members put before them.
Shortened meeting minutes make it difficult for citizens and city officials alike to go back in time and understand the context and circumstances surrounding decision-making.
I'll type this slow so please try to pay attention and keep up. If public meeting minutes are available go through them before you go to the next meeting, it's called homework.
But if I may get off subject, do ya think that K-Ply is going to make it? Seems like there has been two fires there recently, is someone not paying enough attention?
K-ply will only make it if they can service their debt. This fire (1 of 3) is only creating more debt and less servicing
BBC --- You have missed the point, and apparently believe that there will still be more detailed minutes kept for each council meeting. But no ---under this "experiment" with shortened minutes, there are no other written minutes of what was discussed by the council.
There is a sharp contrast between the minutes that were prepared by the previous City Clerk (detailed and useful for understanding the context of decisions) and the minutes that the new Clerk wishes to provide.
Tax the losers on welfare, not people trying to be successful like K-Ply!
OakPointAnnie... I see, well, carry on then. I don't live in the city limits and I'm damn if I ever would. :-)
Shout out to my peeps yo!
Dude today I went over to sequim. I took the bus. I like the bus cos you can look out the window and watch things go past. Also you can sometimes meet up with some cool bros and sistahs but you have to watch for the the occasional twitchy boomberah who gets on and then sits next to you and starts talking about how they're from Venus and made from ascended light.
Anyway I went to sequim to see if i could find a wall hanging to cover those holes in the wall from my bad ass ninja throwing star. I was wanting one of the dallei LLama and Jim hendrix but I couldn't find one. Dude, instead I got this killer wall hinging of some native American bro and an eagle and a wolf. I think this is supposed to be my Native Spirit guide bro.
Dude Sequim freaks me out. Every time! All these old geezers shuffling around and driving their cars over the sidewalk instead of the road. They remind me of my gramps. He is always shouting out about the govement and how it is coming to get him. Old people smell funny.
So dude, on the way back from Sequim I past this sign that said "Team jesus gets you out of twilight." Must be the same dude I saw at WalMart last week the one that wanted twenty bucks. Maybe! Anyway, so Jesus has a posse now. And you know I tried to read those Twilight books but I couldn't wrap my head around them. Too complex for me man. I like the twilight chicks. Dude, do you think they named that restraunt after that Bella chick in those books?
That's all. Peace out!
Groove Dawg bro
Dude Sequim freaks me out. Every time! All these old geezers shuffling around and driving their cars over the sidewalk instead of the road.
And you are how old? As an old fart myself I prefer being on a sidewalk over dancing with you. :-)
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