Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes

     It was disturbing enough to learn some months back that the Town Manager, Russ Dean, was editing the minutes of the Board of Selectmen meetings.  While he said it was doing so to correct grammar, spelling and such, the very fact that he was handling the minutes raised serious questions.  Were minutes being "sanitized?"  Whether he is still doing this or not is uncertain.  Now we find the public cannot amend meeting minutes found to be incomplete or incorrect.
     Last evening Brian Griset attempted to have the Board amend the minutes of a previous meeting to accurately state what he had said at that meeting.  His request was voted down on the basis that there is no provision for a member of the public to amend meeting minutes.  Selectwoman Surman was the only member of the Board that showed common sense when she stated that she saw no good reason why amendments requested by the public could not be made to correct the record.
     What was very troubling was Selectman Chartrand's comment that the minutes were a summary of the meeting and did not have to be in detail.  This is absurd and he should know better.  The minutes of the Board of Selectmen meetings are legal documents (as Frank Ferraro stated later in the discussion) and as such have been used in court cases to support a particular position.  The video record of the meetings are not archived for a particularly long period of time, while written minutes are kept for quite some time and are often used as a reference in subsequent meetings.
     If Chartrand's view was pursued (and that seems to be the case), then who makes the decision what is included and what is not in the minutes?  The recorder?  The Town Manager when he edits the minutes for "grammar and spelling?"  How is anyone who goes before the Board assured that there is an accurate recording of their issue?  The voted upon decision?  How about public comment?  Are those remarks excluded because they might place the Board in a bad light?  (This was the argument used to unilaterally decide to move public comment to the end of the meeting as it "often set a bad tone for the meeting.")  We have seen repeated instances of the minutes being incomplete and attempts to amend defeated.
     The audacity of this Board, save a couple of saner heads, to run things their own way needs to cease.  These folks should know and follow the laws and established procedures in conducting Town business and to focus on serving residents and not themselves.  We will continue to police them and to communicate here and in the local newspapers when they step out of line.  We need to be able to at least trust our Town government to act in an ethical manner.