From the PNA Legal Hotline

By Teri Henning, General Counsel
and Melissa Melewsky, Media Law Counsel
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association

Q: I requested copies of a local agency’s minutes and audio recording from a meeting held in early December, 2009. I was denied on the basis that meeting minutes aren’t public until they have been formally approved, and the audio recording is exempt as a “personal use” record. There have been three meetings since early December. Can the agency deny access to minutes and the audio recording at this point?

A: No. At this point, the agency must provide access to draft minutes, and the audio recording has been public since the meeting in December when it was created.

Section 708(b)(21) of the Right to Know Law exempts draft minutes from public disclosure, but only until the next regularly scheduled meeting of the agency. Once the agency holds its next regularly scheduled meeting, the draft minutes must be made public upon request.

Similarly, an agency’s audio recording of a meeting is a public record and must be made available (at any time) upon request. Audio recordings are not subject to the “draft minutes” exception in section 708(b)(21); nor are they exempt under section 708(b)(12), as a note prepared solely for personal use.

The Office of Open Records determined in Advisory Opinion 2009-003 that if an agency makes an audio recording of a public meeting, the recording is not subject to exemption under section 708(b)(12) related to notes for personal use or 708(b)(21) related to draft minutes.

Read the Office of Open Record's Advisory Opinion