A Chatham County commissioner has made so many edits to the minutes of a joint Cary/Chatham County committee that clerks for both government bodies have decided to transcribe the minutes verbatim. From the Cary News comes this example of Commissioner Sally Kost’s edits, which prompted the change.
Most of Kost’s changes have been benign – correcting typographic errors and altering a few words to make paragraphs read better in a manner not unlike what an editor might do. But some changes – deletions, to be more precise – have troubled town officials.
In December, the committee had an extensive discussion over the Aug. 31 minutes. Kost said she wanted to clarify several points of the conversation, leading Rowland to prepare a special set of verbatim minutes.
In the preliminary minutes for the August meeting, Kost is reported as saying that the county would work on design standards and an overlay district for the area after the land use plan is adopted. In the December review, Kost said, “I never said that. I didn’t say it’s after the land use is adopted because I think they need to be concurrent and it’s probably a point we need to discuss.”
But in Rowland’s verbatim minutes of the August meeting, Kost said: “One of the things that we were going to propose is perhaps we direct staff to start working – once we have a land use plan – to work on design standards and then have an overlay for this area.”
The comment stayed in the approved minutes.
While the verbatim process takes longer, it seems to me it is the only way to ensure an accurate representation of who said what to whom.
Speaking of transparency, you will find an excellent resource and guide to state and local government documents at www.nctransparency.com.
