It has come to my attention that the select board discussed (without notice) my request for information regarding the creation and editing of official minutes of select board meetings, at their meeting on Tuesday October 19,2016. minute-creation-request
Since the online agenda made no mention of discussing my request, I decided that I would rather spend the evening with my wife who had just returned home from a two day conference. Apparently, the board took advantage of this and decided to discuss my request without proper notice…too bad for me I guess! I will have to wait for the minutes to know for sure??????
My request was made so I could have an understanding of how minutes of select board meetings are created and how their contents are edited.
Town Administrator made it quite clear in point [1.)] in her email to me how the SELECT BOARD MINUTES are edited prior to the select board members open review. trovato-email-10-17-16
My attention was drawn to the following response provided by Town Administrator Trovato on October 17, 2016:
I will gladly answer your questions based on past practice.
- The minutes are sent via word format so that we can make grammatical or spelling changes prior to a Board meeting. The Selectmen meeting minutes are sent back to the recording secretary so they have the document presented to the Board at the meeting before approval.
- If the “track changes” is turned on then yes the changes are tracked.
Christine Trovato, MPA
Town Administrator
Town of Henniker
I was deeply disturbed by the following response I received on October 6, 2016 from secretary Cherry Palmisano, which states that there is no policy regarding document creation:
—- Original Message —–
From: “Secretary” <hennikeradmin@tds.net>
To: “Bruce Trivellini” <molarsolutions@tds.net>, “Kris Blomback – Pats Peak Ski Area” <kris@patspeak.com>, Bfrench479@comcast.ne, “dsosgood henniker” <dsosgood.henniker@gmail.com>, onehenniker@gmail.com, tiamhooper@gmail.com
Cc: “Chris.trovato@tds.net” <chris.trovato@tds.net>, secretary@henniker.org
Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2016 2:30:59 PM
Subject: RE: Right to know request Meeting Minutes
Bruce,
I was not in the initial email regarding your Right to Know Request.
There is no policy regarding document creation.
We follow the State of NH Record Retention Schedule.
Minutes are emailed to the Town Administrator from the Recording Secretary in Word format. Minutes are posted on the town website as a .pdf.
We currently do not have an internal policy on emails, etc.
Best regards,
Cherry J. Palmisano
TOWN OF HENNIKER
It should be very disturbing to all of us that Select Board Meeting minutes are being created, sent to the Town Administrator & other employees and are admittedly edited prior to the Select Board Members first review.
It also in unconscionable that these documents are not required to have the “tack change” function on when editing.
What the heck is going on here!??????
Oscar Wilde once said, “always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”