 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| Boards'/Committees' Meeting Minutes |
| Veterans Memorial |
| Town Library |
Our Town:
| Abington Massachusetts |
| Town Offices |
| Town Hall 781.982.2100 |
| School Comm. |
| Selectmen: |
| Sewer Comm. |
| Zoning Board |
| Ab/Rock. Joint Water |
| Board of Health |
| Abington Water |
| Assessors |
Most of these minutes have been scanned from library copies if you notice any errors please let me know.
Page 15 of Mass. Open Meeting Law Guidelines..
The Law is also silent on the issue of how long a governmental body may take to adopt and make available for public inspection its
"official" minutes. Nonetheless, by implication the Law requires that such minutes be made available to the public within a
reasonable period of time after the conclusion of any given meeting. What is reasonable will depend upon such factors as the
length of the meeting in question, the complexity of issues discussed at the meeting, the staffing and workload of the particular
body responsible for preparing the final document, and the like. Without establishing a hard and fast rule regarding the timeliness
of the preparation of "official" minutes, a time frame of two to four weeks may be considered reasonable under most
circumstances.
Release: Both the Open Meeting Law and the Public Records Law include provisions which pertain to the release of minutes of
meetings convened by governmental bodies. In general, the minutes of a meeting become public records from the moment they
are created. This is true regardless of the form in which they may first appear, i.e., stenographic notes, handwritten notes, or tape
recordings. The governmental body may not require that it vote to adopt or approve or release open session minutes before they
may be released to the public, even though the minutes may be only in draft form at the time of the request. The body or custodian
of the records may, of course, label the notes or cassette tape at the time of the release as being in draft, unofficial, or unapproved
form, as may be appropriate
The Law is also silent on the issue of how long a governmental body may take to adopt and make available for public inspection its
"official" minutes. Nonetheless, by implication the Law requires that such minutes be made available to the public within a
reasonable period of time after the conclusion of any given meeting. What is reasonable will depend upon such factors as the
length of the meeting in question, the complexity of issues discussed at the meeting, the staffing and workload of the particular
body responsible for preparing the final document, and the like. Without establishing a hard and fast rule regarding the timeliness
of the preparation of "official" minutes, a time frame of two to four weeks may be considered reasonable under most
circumstances.
Release: Both the Open Meeting Law and the Public Records Law include provisions which pertain to the release of minutes of
meetings convened by governmental bodies. In general, the minutes of a meeting become public records from the moment they
are created. This is true regardless of the form in which they may first appear, i.e., stenographic notes, handwritten notes, or tape
recordings. The governmental body may not require that it vote to adopt or approve or release open session minutes before they
may be released to the public, even though the minutes may be only in draft form at the time of the request. The body or custodian
of the records may, of course, label the notes or cassette tape at the time of the release as being in draft, unofficial, or unapproved
form, as may be appropriate
| Golf Comm. |
| Library Trustees |
| Planning Board |
| Conservation Comm. |
| Council on Aging |
| Finance Committee |
| Park & Rec |
| SAGE |