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Board weighs video-retention rules after public request to remove a comment
Summary
Trustees discussed how long board meeting videos should remain publicly available. State guidance requires three months on the website and one year archived; directors favored aligning availability and archive (one year public) and asked staff to draft a policy addressing website posting, YouTube, committee meetings, and executive-session retention.
Gresham — The board considered how long meeting audio and video recordings should remain publicly accessible after a recent request from a public commenter asking for their comment to be removed from public view.
Staff described current practice: videos are posted to YouTube and live on the district’s site (which links to YouTube), with district archives kept on Google Drive and staff drives. They said the law requires recordings to be available on the website for three months and that the district is required to retain records for one year after minutes approval, but practices varied historically and YouTube hosts many of the district’s recordings.
Directors raised storage, access and transparency trade-offs: shorter website availability (three months) reduces public access but may limit AI-driven clipping and republishing; keeping videos publicly available for one year simplifies access and better serves transparency and community members who want to review earlier meetings. Several directors suggested an internal archive (Google Drive) available on public-records request beyond whatever is posted publicly.
Executive sessions drew special attention: directors recommended keeping recordings related to litigation or executive-session material longer in archive for legal protection, while keeping public access rules aligned with transparency goals.
Outcome: staff will draft a records-retention policy for the board and recommended practice of aligning website availability with archive retention (proposed one year publicly accessible, with executive-session exceptions and the ability to remove specific videos by request when legally justified). The board will review the proposed policy in the policy committee and return it for adoption.
