June 28, 1994; City of Byron
6/28/1994 10:14:43 AM
This is an opinion of the Commissioner of Administration issued pursuant to section 13.072 of Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13 - the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. It is based on the facts and information available to the Commissioner as described below.
Facts and Procedural History:On May 31, 1994, PIPA received a letter from Mr. Mark R. Anfinson, the attorney for the Byron Review, a newspaper located in Byron, Minnesota. In this letter, Mr. Anfinson described attempts by his client to gain access to data prepared by the City of Byron, hereinafter Byron , and asked for an opinion on the issue stated in the Issue section below. The facts Mr. Anfinson recited concerning his client's disagreement with Byron are as follows.The Byron Review periodically covers meetings of the Park Board of Byron. The Park Board generally meets once a month. As part of the meeting, minutes of the Park Board are routinely recorded in writing. These minutes are considered to be preliminary minutes until the next meeting of the Board. At that meeting, the preliminary minutes are reviewed, any necessary amendments made and then the minutes are formally approved. Mr. Anfinson stated that in the past the Park Board provided copies of preliminary minutes to his client. However, the Board recently changed the policy and now refuses to release copies of the minutes until they have been formally approved. Mr. Anfinson went on to argue that under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, hereinafter MGDPA , preliminary minutes must be considered public data. His client asks for access to the preliminary minutes, in part, because of the month long period between minutes. Mr. Anfinson stated that he knew of no law that would classify preliminary minutes as other than public data. He then asked the Commissioner of Administration to address the issue discussed below. In response to Mr. Anfinson's request, PIPA, on behalf of the Commissioner, wrote to Mr. Mark Behl, the clerk/administrator of Byron. The purposes of this letter, dated June 3, 1994, were to inform Mr. Behl of Mr. Anfinson's request, to provide a copy of the request to him, to ask Mr. Behl or the City's attorney to provide any information or support for the City's position, and to inform him of the date by which the Commissioner was required to issue this opinion. On June 13, 1994, PIPA received a phone message from Mr. Phillip Gartner, the city attorney for Byron. In that message, Mr. Gartner indicated that the City of Byron was willing to release the minutes to the public and therefore an opinion was not necessary. On June 16, 1994, via facsimile transmission, PIPA received a letter from Mr. Behl. That letter stated that after review with the Byron city attorney, the Park Board was willing to release the minutes. In response to that information from Byron and its attorney, PIPA consulted by phone with Mr. Anfinson about whether an opinion was still required. He acknowledged that Byron was willing to provide minutes but asked that the Commissioner issue an opinion on the issue he had raised because the issue comes up with some frequency. In those instances, an opinion could be very helpful to assist the public and agencies. Issue:The issue raised by Mr. Anfinson in his request was as follows:
Discussion:
It must be emphasized that in this particular instance, Byron has decided to make the preliminary minutes of its Park Board meetings available to the public. Although Byron has complied with Chapter 13 and made public data available to the public, the Commissioner agrees with Mr. Anfinson's assessment that this issue does arise with some frequency and that an opinion may be helpful to both the public and entities subject to Chapter 13.
Under Chapter 13, all government data are presumed to be available for access by the public, either by physical inspection of the data or receipt of copies, unless the government data are classified as not public by state statute or federal law. (Minnesota Statutes Section 13.03.) For purposes of Chapter 13, government data is defined in very broad terms as follows:
The preliminary minutes of a meeting of a public body, like the park board of a city, are created by the secretary or other person assigned that task by the body. As they are data in some physical form, that is created by an agent of a government entity, they are government data for purposes of Chapter 13. The Commissioner is not aware of any Minnesota statute or federal law that classifies preliminary notes of a meeting as anything other than public data. These notes fall within the presumption of Minnesota Statutes Section 13.03, subdivision 1, that all government data are presumed to be public. Often government entities are reluctant to release items like preliminary minutes because a review of the minutes of a previous meeting by participants at the next public meeting may reveal some inaccuracy in the minutes that will be corrected by amendment. However, this reasonable concern should not be handled by denying the public access to the preliminary minutes. The reasonable concern for accuracy can be handled by stamping or marking the preliminary minutes with appropriate notations to the effect that they are preliminary, are not final and have not yet been reviewed by the body for possible correction and amendment. Opinion:Based on the correspondence in this matter, my opinion on the issue raised by Mr. Anfinson is as follows:
Signed:
Debra Rae Anderson
Dated: June 28, 1994
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Government Data
Draft documents
Minutes, personal notes
