Talk Back: Should Local Governments Be Required To Provide Complete Minutes?

At Monday's Patchogue Village Board of Trustees meeting, some discussion regarding the Village's text minutes took place during the public comment section.

Some residents stated that they would like to have the full meetings completely transcribed, a task that was stated by the district clerk, Patti Seal, as challenging due to the length of the meetings and its required turnaround of completion by the next meeting.

Seal said that the Village is only required to have motions and votes listed in the minutes, but that they have been providing substantially more by transcribing as much as possible. As a result of the deadlines, Seal said the transcription of the public comment section is at times reduced in order to have the minutes ready for approval at the next board meeting. Village Board meetings typically run anywhere from 90 minutes to the nearly two-and-a-half hours that this past Monday's meeting lasted.

Complete audio recordings of the meetings however are available by FOIL request from , and Patch has .

Other examples of local government recordings include Brookhaven Town's video recording of their meetings, which are broadcast within a few weeks of the meeting itself.

So do you think that local governments should be required to post complete transcriptions of their meetings? And if so, would you read them and how would you use them? Vote in our poll and then comment about it below.