Record-Keeping Comparison ~A Look Back

For histories sake, here is a comparison between Marianna Borough's public meeting minutes for August 2022 and West Bethlehem Township's public meeting minutes for August 2022. The borough does not include "Bills Paid" or "Bills to be Paid" in their minutes. What must legally be in the minutes for both municipalities are public comments, names of those commenting, motions, seconds, and vote outcome. It is up to a municipality if they choose to be more transparent (West Bethlehem Township, I might add, chooses to be more transparent in their agendas and minutes than most other local municipalities I have seen). By doing so it lessens the amount of right-to-know requests a person has to file for information. For instance, if you are filing for the minutes in a municipality that does not include the expense report (not the same as a financial report)you will need to ask for the expense report in your request, too. If you receive the minutes and realize the expense report is not included, you will then need to file another right-to-know request for the information. Marianna borough usually sends a 30-day extension when they receive a request, no matter the request. The township sends the information within a week; on rare occasions do they send an extension.

The minutes comparison below are not comparing one municipality overall to one another, but merely comparing municipality minutes of one over the other.

If you want more transparency in your municipal public meeting minutes, ask those who serve to be more transparent. If they say no, you have a choice to vote them out next election, just as they have a choice to be more transparent. If you are happy with what you see, then re-elect those who serve. Also shown here are old minutes, from 2004, with different people serving. Note-this blog is not affiliated with any government agency.

2022 Marianna Borough Minutes 2022 West Bethlehem Township Minutes