Councilman, clerk play name game over minutes
Rumpf says that, by law, she is not required to record names
The Daily Mail
April 17, 2009

CAIRO — Controversy came to a head when Cairo Town Councilman Richard Lorenz requested to Town Clerk Tara Rumpf that the names of residents who speak during the public comment period be included in the Town Clerk’s meeting minutes.

Rumpf responded that the Open Government Law does not require that residents be named and that someone on the state Committee on Open Government advised that it was best not to print the names.

The law requires that motions, proposals, resolutions and any other matter formally voted upon, as well as any votes, be recorded. Public comments do not have to be recorded in meeting minutes, under the law.

“I have always done the minutes to reflect historical happenings in the town,” Rumpf said, “I report everything that goes on in these meetings.”

She added that Lorenz has complained about her minutes for ten years.

Councilman Raymond Suttmeier sided with Lorenz, arguing that the minutes are an historical record and without the names of the residents who speak, it falls short.

“Six months from now, if someone wants to know what happened tonight, they are not going to talk to [Supervisor] John [Coyne], or Richie or I, they are going to go to the minutes,” Suttmeier said, “if I read these minutes that just said ‘a resident,’ who is that? I would have no idea who it is.”

Rumpf noted that Lorenz has had a problem with her minutes every month for 10 years.

“We went through a whole year where we didn’t even approve your minutes,” Lorenz said.

Rumpf responded that does not need to approve meeting minutes. She said that in the future, she will print copies of the previous meeting’s minutes for the public audience.

Lorenz also stated that the Board does not receive the minutes in what he would consider a timely manner. He said the minutes usually are finished the day before the next Town meeting.

Councilwoman Janet Schwarzenegger proposed that the Board could ask a second person, not a Town Clerk, to take more detailed meeting minutes.

Rumpf suggested that the Town look into purchasing equipment that will transfer spoken words into type.

She said she has spoken with Coyne about purchasing the costly technology because of all the litigation in which the Town in involved.

“It is a considerable amount of money,” Coyne said, “and if we don’t get it through a grant, I don’t think we are in the position to get it.”

Rumpf takes notes during meetings and listens to a playback tape of the meeting while she works on the minutes.

The tapes, she said, are kept for four months.

Coyne said he would like the names of residents who spoke during the public comment period to appear in the minutes.

“I agree with Ray, it is useful for historical reasons,” he said.

Rumph said she understood that people would like to see their names in print.

Coyne said he understood that Rumpf had to follow certain guidelines as Town Clerk.

Rumpf said that the business portion of the minutes from the March 18 meeting had been completed quite quickly. It was the public comment period, she said, that took over a week to record.

Coyne and Rumpf agreed that in the future, meeting minutes could be finished in a more timely manner.