Correction

Hey Carole,

Hope all is well. I received a couple inquiries regarding your Stockbridge Updates notes item #4 that suggested the AG's office is requiring that my boards do verbatim minutes.

"4. The Board received complaints alleging violations of the Open Meeting Law. Wilusz reported the matter is now resolved — no violation found by local counsel or the Attorney General's office. There was a request that minutes of the meeting — where possible — be verbatim "

I haven't gone back and looked at the meeting video and we haven't done the minutes yet but if I made a comment about that I apologize but the AG's final determination does not require nor suggest we do verbatim minutes. I briefly talked about the final recommendations asking us to be sure we are capturing public comments for example and the important parts of the meeting. (Which we have always done) Meeting minutes are not required by law to be a transcript but more of a summary.

Thanks, James J. Wilusz, R.S.
Executive Director/Registered Sanitarian
Tri-Town Health Department

Hi Carole,

I agree with Jim on this. There was a request by the AG to improve the headings and specificity of the notes, but not at all to make them inclusively verbatim. To the contrary, there have been multiple rulings and our counsel's advice that speak against massive word-for-word meeting documentation.

I must add that the Updates have always provided an extremely accurate synopsis of all the public meetings I have been privileged to follow. Great job!

Charles Kenny MD
Chair BOH

Gentlemen,

Thank you for reading SU and for taking the time to submit a correction.

Carole

Photo: Lionel Delevingne