10/13/2010
One councilman made an inquiry about recording council meetings and making them public.
Councilman Dale Walter of Mt. Washington, raised a question to his fellow city leaders regarding the recording of their meetings, and to make it available for the public.
Norman Lemme, the City Attorney, said that the Municipal Clerks Association and the Municipal Attorneys Association were against the act of recording the council meetings, and eventually making it public, because it will only open the city to various lawsuits.
In fact, Lemme put in, he himself benefited from these recordings when he was able to win a few cases against Shepherdsville and used meeting recordings as evidence.
Butch Stovall, the City Clerk, actually uses his own money in order to buy blank audio tapes to be used for transcribing the minutes of the meeting.
According to Lemme, anybody can record public meetings. If they want to record any public meeting, they can do so. However, the law requires the minutes as the official record.
The reasons supporting the advice of Lemme why recording public meetings and making them public is not being sanctioned satisfied the queries of Councilman Walter. He then dropped his inquiry and did not pursue the topic.
