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Residents press for transparency; committee approves QR code in town newsletter
Summary
Residents raised concerns about missing 2025 agendas and minutes. The committee agreed to post materials online, pursue library displays and approved placing a QR code linking to project materials in the town newsletter to direct residents to the project page.
Residents told Brentwood's Municipal Building Committee on Aug. 12 that agendas and minutes for 2025 meetings were not visibly posted on the town website or calendar and asked the committee to make documents easier to find.
"It's not very transparent, and I kinda would hope that you guys would start doing that and put up the last, meeting minutes for this year," resident Laura Hazier said during public comment. Hazier also said meeting listings were not on the town calendar and urged the committee to post agendas and minutes in the future.
Committee members acknowledged gaps and said they would work to post minutes and agendas. One member offered to recruit a volunteer with website access to assist; another said the committee would explore displaying Turner Group presentation boards at the town library and leave printed materials at the town hall for residents who are not computer-literate.
The committee approved a motion to include a QR code in the town newsletter linking to the municipal project page (the project page can be reached at a project URL provided by staff). The motion was made, seconded and recorded as passing at the Aug. 12 meeting; the transcript records the final vote as 7 in favor and 1 opposed. A committee member who opposed asked that the newsletter text explicitly refer to the proposal as "Police station" or "Municipal Building/Police Station." The committee did not change the language at the meeting.
Committee members also discussed archiving older materials. When asked about an earlier Weston & Sampson feasibility study that remained on the website, committee members said they would reorganize materials rather than remove them, so historical documents remain available but are clearly labeled as superseded when appropriate. "I hesitate to pull anything down in its entirety because I don't want it to be seen that we are hiding anything," one committee member said.
For outreach, the committee agreed to pursue multiple channels once Turner Group provides schematic concepts: posting presentation files to the town website, adding the QR code to the newsletter, placing displays at the library and scheduling at least one evening informational session in late September (weeks of Sept. 22 or Sept. 29) to reach residents who cannot attend daytime meetings.
What happens next: Staff and committee volunteers will publish the Turner Group presentation materials electronically and add the QR code to the next newsletter; the committee will publicize a late-September evening info session after it reviews September deliverables.
