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Zoning Board to formalize handling of sealed non-public minutes, citing state statute requirements
Summary
The town Zoning Board of Adjustment agreed June 18 to relabel columns in its sealed‑minutes record to align with state statute requirements and to add procedures governing non‑public session minutes to its Rules of Procedure. A future public meeting will include a non‑public session to consider whether records should remain sealed.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment on June 18 agreed to formalize how it records and reviews sealed, non‑public session minutes.
Board members determined that columns on the record of sealed minutes will be relabeled to reflect state statute requirements and directed that procedures for handling non‑public session minutes be added to the ZBA Rules of Procedure. The minutes state the board will, at a later public meeting, enter a non‑public session to approve sealed minutes and determine whether the reasons for keeping them sealed continue to apply; any vote to unseal minutes will be taken in public session.
The change was presented as an administrative and compliance step: relabeling the record to match statutory categories and documenting the decision process in the board’s rules. The board did not specify the exact statutory citation during the meeting; the minutes record only that the relabeling is to "reflect State Statute requirements." The board asked that the procedural language be drafted and returned for future consideration.
Members framed the change as a means of clarifying how sealed minutes are tracked and how decisions to keep or release those minutes will be made. The board also agreed to circulate related materials from a recent NHMA Legal Services webinar for further study.
Next steps: the board will draft the Rules of Procedure amendment and place it on a future agenda for formal adoption; any vote to unseal prior minutes will be taken in a subsequent public session.
