City leaders voted unanimously to have full transcriptions of discussions in board minutes going forward.
While a recent controversy involving Mount Airy Mayor David Rowe was not discussed during the latest meeting of the city council, the issue did resurface in what is normally a routine part of parliamentary procedure.
A call by one commissioner for a more-complete version of minutes of the previous, Jan. 19 meeting — which included a public forum dominated by comments about the mayor — sparked a vote last Thursday ordering “verbatim” records for all meetings henceforth.
That public forum lasted about two hours, with dozens of citizens journeying to a podium to voice their opinions regarding comments by Rowe for a Washington Post article published in early January. Among other statements, these included the mayor’s distaste for low-hanging pants sometimes worn by young African-American males.
Some speakers on Jan. 19 criticized Rowe and asked that he resign for expressing racism, while others were willing to accept the multiple apologies he issued in the aftermath of the article and use the incident as fuel to improve race relations locally.
When the council gathered again last Thursday for its meeting that also included a public forum, there were no calls for resignation. But Commissioner Steve Yokeley was not willing to put the previous forum to bed just yet.
At the first part of the session which typically includes board members approving the minutes — or official record — of the previous meeting, Yokeley said he could not be part of rubber-stamping those from Jan. 19. He asked that the minutes be removed from the consent agenda, which is made of routine items the board approves in a blanket vote.
Yokeley said the minutes — which are prepared from audio recordings of meetings by the city clerk — did not fully reflect the scope of comments made during the Jan. 19 public forum.
“I think there were a lot of things omitted that should have been in the minutes,” Yokeley said of the fact that the entire forum was condensed to about two and a half typewritten pages.
“And I don’t think I can vote for their approval the way they are,” Yokeley added.
He said the minutes as presented did not adequately depict “all the passionate things that night which people had to say — I just think it changes the meaning.”
Yokeley said incompleteness was the issue. “What’s there is accurate,” he explained. “Some things were omitted that would better represent what happened.”
The commissioner’s concern also seemed to strike a chord with fellow board member Jon Cawley.
Cawley complained Thursday that minutes from closed sessions the council held regarding the redevelopment of the former Spencer’s Inc. property did not adequately portray what was said.
Citizens deserve to know exactly what happened in such cases, Cawley said.
While Yokeley’s original intention was to have the Jan. 19 minutes brought back to the board with all forum comments included, Cawley’s stance led to a motion on the table being amended to provide an all-inclusive approach for meetings going forward.
“I think they ought to be verbatim,” Commissioner Jim Armbrister said, a sentiment embraced by other board members to produce the 5-0 vote.
After the meeting, City Attorney Hugh Campbell said state law does not require a public body to keep verbatim minutes of meetings. Rather, those records must allow someone who didn’t attend to know what happened, Campbell explained.
