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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-29-25 Public Comment - A. Sweeney - Re_ Bring back quality written meeting minutesFrom:Alison Sweeney To:Mike Maas; Bozeman Public Comment Cc:Alex Newby; Jon Henderson; Takami Clark; Jennifer Madgic; Joey Morrison; Terry Cunningham; Douglas Fischer; Emma Bode Subject:[EXTERNAL]Re: Bring back quality written meeting minutes Date:Tuesday, July 22, 2025 12:32:41 PM Attachments:Screen Shot 2025-07-22 at 11.59.09 AM.png CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hello Mike, Thank you for contacting me for clarification! This is excellent. I also plan to attend the Community Chat scheduled for Friday with Ability Montana, so hopefully we can get somehelpful input there as well. I've copied your questions in red and will try to answer each. I've included the Commissioners as well since I know I missed the deadline of noon today. Hopethis is helpful. In order to “bring back” can you please indicate what previous minutes you are referencing that you would like to see again?Some examples of meeting minutes picked at random that I would consider adequate would be the following: December 9th 2019, December 11th 2019, September 16th 2019. What would “full, substantive written meeting minutes” contain?Meeting minutes serve as a resource for future residents, staff, and elected officials. The point is to provide an archive that is easily referenced. We do not know that audio/video technologywill remain consistent over time (we can pretty much count on the fact that it won't) so while the video links are helpful, they do not take the place of a written descriptive record. Furthermore, video recordings can be difficult for those with less than optimal hearing abilities. I know transcripts are available, but how many pages is a transcribed commissionmeeting that goes on for 6 hours!? Residents need to be able to sit down for 20 minutes and read meeting minutes and walk away with a basic understanding of what was discussed, what was questioned, and what directionwas given. When myself and other BBC members were trying to decipher what had happened to leave our Historic Preservation program in such a sorry state we started digging throughminutes and were able to put together the pieces of the death-by-a-thousand cuts over years of decisions. If something happened to the video records of today, doing that kind of researchand coming up with answers would be impossible with the way the minutes are written today. It is also unreasonable to expect that residents will have hours upon hours to watch videorecordings, and again the concerns that hearing impaired individuals will be disadvantaged. In preparation for the July 14th, 2025 special meeting on the Unified Development Code some BBC members contacted me wondering where the minutes from the June 24th, 2025 regularcommission meeting were. They were not ready yet, obviously since they are up for approval tonight, but even if they had been available, they would not have proven an efficient oreffective resource for these residents to understand what was discussed, questioned, or decided. Would you please take any of the minutes scheduled for approval tomorrow night and identify where you are finding deficiencies?Gladly, thank you for asking. Since the June 24th meeting is the one that I had BBC members ask me about, let's look at that one. Community Development staff came to the commissionwith a list of 8 parameters for managing mass and scale of development and redevelopment in the draft UDC. Rather than a descriptive summary of the 8 parameters, questions, anddirection given, the minutes are this: That tells us nothing! Furthermore the final timestamp is misleading because Director Georgedoesn't actually give a summary of the direction her and her team were given, she says, yes Ibelieve I have good notes on the 8 items plus the direction to consider removing unit caps inR-A and R-B. With minutes like this a person would be required to sit and watch more thanan hour of video recording to understand what was discussed, what was questioned, and whatwas decided. Giving direction to staff IS a decision. Here is a picture of the notes I took for myself. These are by no means intended as officialminutes, I write them for myself. Even so, you can see that they are more informative than theofficial minutes. Pardon my referring to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor by their first names,they are shorter than their last names and I try to write quickly. No disrespect is meant. Anyway, I hope that's helpful. Thank you for asking, and I look forward to hearing from Ability Montana and their ADA compliance personnel on Friday. Alison B. SweeneyBernadette's Handmade Jewelry Bozeman MT406-404-5740 alison-bernadettes.com On Mon, Jul 21, 2025 at 12:39 PM Mike Maas <MMaas@bozeman.net> wrote: Good afternoon, In an effort to better understand the concerns you expressed with your followers, would yoube willing to offer clarification on the following points? Your message says, “Bring back full, substantive written meeting minutes!” A. In order to “bring back” can you please indicate what previous minutes you are referencing that you would like to see again?B. What would “full, substantive written meeting minutes” contain? C. Would you please take any of the minutes scheduled for approval tomorrow night andidentify where you are finding deficiencies? Additionally, I would like to add that the City has adaptive listening devices available foraudience members that request them. We have an upcoming update to the public about our existing accessibility aids. For the presentations, we are currently undertaking the designphase of our upcoming Commission Room technology update and improved display options are something we are looking at. We have had a scheduled meeting with many members ofstaff that present to the Commission about ADA requirements and implementing accessibility checks through Power Point. Lastly, in the recent months we have beentransferring presentation slides into our Laserfiche folder for minutes for access by the public after the meetings. I look forward to hearing your feedback and encourage you to reach out with any additional concerns or issues. Thank you! Mike Maas, MPA City of Bozeman | 121 N. Rouse Ave. | Bozeman, MT 59715 406.582.2321 Pronouns: he/him/his Have Questions? Ask BZN Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Commissioners, and City Manager, The lack of full, substantive written meeting minutes provides a barrier to our MontanaConstitutional right to know, and participate. Quality written meeting minutes should include direction given to City Staff by members ofthe City Commission. Meeting minutes should be a document that a resident can read andunderstand what decisions were made, who proposed what actions were to be taken, andwhat concerns were expressed. Requiring residents to spend 3, 4, or 6 hours watching a video recording in order to stayinformed is not acceptable. Bring back full, substantive written meeting minutes! Thank you, City of Bozeman emails are subject to the Right to Know provisions of Montana’s Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 9) and may be considered a “public record” pursuant to Title 2, Chpt. 6, Montana Code Annotated. As such, this email, its sender and receiver, and the contents may be available for public disclosure and will be retained pursuant to the City’s record retention policies. Emails that contain confidential information such as information related to individual privacy may be protected from disclosure under law.