City Attorney J.P. LeCompte said state law requires either detailed transcribed minutes or audio and video of each meeting. He said Cedar Park currently does both. He said the written recording of minutes has created a months-long backlog in the completion and council approval of the written minutes of previous meetings.
Mayor Corbin Van Arsdale said the increase in public records requests has also made it more difficult for City Secretary LeAnn M. Quinn to complete a meeting’s minutes for approval by council at its next meeting.
According to Van Arsdale, all the local city councils and regional boards of which he is aware use a more abbreviated written record that includes the item and the record of the vote, but without comments from council, which Cedar Park currently includes.Those governing bodies typically approve their meeting minutes at the next meeting, he said.
The current backlog for the approval of Cedar Park’s written minutes stretches back to Dec. 5, according to Quinn.
Cedar Park City Council videos do not include subtitles for the hearing impaired. According to city spokesperson Fran Irwin, Cedar Park’s population is below the Texas state law benchmark where subtitles are required for videos of council meetings.
No action was taken at the meeting.
