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Resident asks council to record prior speaker’s name in minutes
Summary
At the public comment period Sarah Fitzpatrick asked the Burrillville council to add Cynthia Lucia’s name and comments from the prior meeting to the minutes, saying Lucia had requested her remarks be put on the record; staff explained minutes are summaries and not verbatim unless requested.
At the start of the meeting resident Sarah Fitzpatrick told the council she attended the prior meeting and said a speaker, Cynthia Lucia, had asked that her comments be put on the record but that Lucia’s name and remarks were omitted from the minutes. “She wanted people to hear what she had to say,” Fitzpatrick said, and asked the council to include Lucia’s name in the minutes distributed that week.
Council and staff responded that minutes are intended to be summaries rather than verbatim transcripts. The clerk and administration said they would include a record of the public comment in the minutes if the council instructs staff to do so, and the council confirmed the discussion had been noted. The council’s practice, staff said, is not to transcribe public comment verbatim unless specifically requested.
