PNA Legal Hotline: RTK Law governs access to draft minutes, tape recordings
From the
PNA Legal
Hotline
By Teri
Henning, General Counsel
and Melissa Melewsky, Media Law Counsel
Pennsylvania
Newspaper Association
Q: The school board secretary makes a tape
recording of all school board meetings and uses
the recording to draft meeting minutes.
Occasionally, it takes the school board months to
complete and adopt meeting minutes based on this
recording, and they refuse to release the tape
recording or draft minutes. Is the tape recording
a public record? How long can the school board
take to adopt official minutes?Can I get a copy
of the draft minutes?
A: The Sunshine Act requires agencies to keep
written minutes of all public meetings. There are
no time requirements in the Sunshine Act which
govern the time allotted for production and
approval of official minutes.
However, the Right to Know Law governs access to
minutes and draft minutes.
Meeting minutes are public records under the
Right to Know Law and must be made available upon
completion. Draft minutes are exempt from
disclosure, but only until the next regularly
scheduled meeting. At that time, regardless of
whether the draft has been approved or not, draft
minutes are public records. See Section
708(b)(21).
The Sunshine Act does not require agencies to
record public meetings, but if the agency does
record a meeting, the tape recording itself is a
public record and must be made available upon
request. The Office of Open Records, in Advisory Opinion
2009-003, determined that tape recordings
are public records as defined by the Right to
Know Law, 65 P.S. 67.101 et seq. As a public
record, it may only be withheld if it fits a
specific exemption.
The Office of Open Records also determined in
Advisory
Opinion 2009-003 that tape recordings of
meetings are not considered “draft minutes”
subject to exemption under section 708(b)(21)
even if their only purpose is for production
of official minutes.
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association attorneys provide member newspapers with advice on government access issues.