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Town of East Hampton
Town Council Special Meeting
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Eaton E. Smith Meeting Room – Town Hall
Minutes
Present: Chairperson Melissa Engel, Vice Chairman John Tuttle and Council Members Chatham Carillo, Thomas Cordeiro, Christopher Goff, and Barbara Moore. Also present were Acting Interim Town Manager Anne McKinney, Town Attorney Jean D’Aquila and Recording Secretary Cathy Sirois.
Not Present: Susan Weintraub
Chairperson Engel called the Special Meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Meeting Room.
Freedom of Information Education Session by Thomas Hennick, FOI Commission:
Tom Hennick, Public Education Officer from the Freedom of Information Commission, provided Freedom of Information training to the Town Council members.
The main points of the meeting included:
- The law is about access to meetings and records
- If no quorum is present, no action can be taken but there can be discussion but the minutes must reflect that
- There are three types of meetings – regular, special and emergency
- Regular meetings are held on the dates that have been filed with the Town Clerk at the beginning of the year
- At Special meetings only the specific items on the agenda can be discussed. Items cannot be added to a special meeting. If public comment is heard at a special meeting that does not pertain to the agenda, the commission cannot respond back to the person.
- There can be a time limit on public comment, it is up to the commission.
- Emergency meetings must be held only for extreme circumstances.
- Audio and video of meetings is allowed but cannot cause a disruption.
- Items that are not meetings include negotiations, hiring of executive level employees, interviewing candidates and caucuses.
- 5 reasons for executive session – personnel matters, pending claims, property purchase, security matters, contents of documents exempt from disclosure/attorney client privilege
- Agenda items for executive session should be as specific as possible
- An individual being discussed in executive session has a right to put item in public session but has no right to attend executive session but can be invited in if desired by commission
- No votes are allowed in executive session
- Be careful that phone/email correspondence does not turn into a meeting
- Members can be present via telephone and can vote
- Public records – every item created is a public record with some exemptions
- Record records can be requested to be in writing
- Copy charges can be imposed – 50 cents per copy, if more than $10 payment can be requested in advance
- Large FOI requests can be asked to narrow scope
- Records do not have to be created for a request
- An estimated timeframe can be provided to a requestor
A motion was made by Mr. Goff, seconded by Mr. Tuttle, to adjourn the meeting at 6:55 p.m. Voted (6-0).
Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Sirois
Recording Secretary
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