FAIRHOPE, Alabama (GCN)—Changing a policy that has been in place since 2009, the City Council decided last month that the city should destroy digital recordings of council and Planning Commission meetings after approval of the minutes of those meetings.

By a resolution adopted Dec. 28, 2009, the original policy required that the meetings be recorded and the recordings preserved for five years.

At the March 7 meeting, Council President Jack Burrell asked for an explanation “from staff” as to the reason for the proposed change in policy, suggesting that the proposed resolution was put on the agenda, not by the council but by the mayor or his staff.

No staff members spoke up, nor did Mayor Tim Kant, who now sits on the dais with council members, along with the city clerk and city attorney. The mayor, clerk and attorney joined the council on the dais at the invitation of the council during its first meeting last November.

After a 19-second silence following his request for a reason for the policy change without getting a response, Burrell then spoke in favor of the resolution, which passed 4-1, with Councilwoman Diana Brewer voting against the measure.  Councilman Kevin Boone made the motion to pass the resolution, which Councilman Rick Mueller seconded.

“We had a number of times that taping didn’t work, and we either needed new equipment or (to) discontinue (it)," Kant told The Courier after the March 7 meeting.

The mayor said the failure of the recording equipment could pose lawsuit problems, at least in terms of perception.

“There were a number of times the tape wouldn’t work, and the whole meeting wasn’t taped,” he said. “And you know with lawsuits and such, they call in and say they want that particular day and that was one (day) that wasn’t taped. I can just hear what would be said even though we put in the minutes that the tape didn’t work.”

The original December 2009 policy followed six months of discussion, prompted by an interest in using recordings as an aid in preparation of minutes, to have a record of what occurred at meetings not included in the minutes, and by concerns that minutes of some meetings did not accurately reflect what occurred.

“We need the record accurate and the ability to go back to what was said,” former Councilman Rick Kingrea said at a December 2009 council meeting the week before the original policy was passed, according to city’s minutes available online. “There were questions raised at the last Planning Commission meeting regarding minutes not being accurate.”

Kingrea brought the resolution before the council the following week, which passed it 3-1, with Councilman Mike Ford casting the lone nay vote. Councilwoman Debbie Quinn was absent.

Here is how other South Alabama cities handle the issue of recording meetings, according to city records: Bayou La Batre records and preserves indefinitely; Orange Beach records and preserves for the council’s term; Brewton, Daphne, Elberta, Mobile and Silverhill record and destroy after minutes approved; Chatom, Foley, Gulf Shores, Millry and Saraland do not record meetings.

At the March 7 meeting, Burrell made a point of noting that most cities either did not record or destroyed the recordings after the minutes of the meetings were approved.

Two weeks after the recording policy was changed this year, Burrell said the council should consider videotaping its meetings and broadcasting them on cable access channels, like the Baldwin County Commission does.

“We could video record our council meetings and put them on (cable TV) and whatever committee meetings we want to,” Burrell said at the March 22 council meeting.  “Planning and Zoning might be a good one. I don’t want a lot of production costs in this. But it would be another way for people that can’t make it here to the meetings to follow the proceedings and see what’s going on in our city. It’s another way to promote the city as well.”

Kant made the same suggestion immediately after the March 7 meeting at which the recording policy was changed.

“We are proposing to upgrade the electronics in (council chambers) and propose that meetings be videotaped that we can put on free (TV) channels,” Kant told The Courier. “So in the interim I thought maybe we ought to just stop the procedure.”