Minutes deadline

Answer

The minutes of an open meeting subject to the Brown Act, which applies to the meetings of legislative bodies of local agencies, are public records and therefore subject to inspection by the public.  Under the Public Records Act, Cal. Govt. Code Section 6252 et seq., “[p]public records are open to inspection at all times during the office hours of the state or local agency and every person has a right to inspect any public record,” except as provided elsewhere in the PRA.  Cal. Govt. Code Section 6253(a).  Under the PRA, an agency must determine whether a request for public records seeks copies of disclosable public records and must notify the requester of its determination within 10 days.  Cal. Govt. Code Section 6253(c).It is not clear what the city means when it says that the minutes “are not ready.”

It might be useful to make a PRA request for the minutes, specifying that you want to inspect them in whatever form they currently exist.  You might point out that “public records” as defined in the PRA include “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of the physical form or characteristics.”  Cal. Govt. Code Section 6252(e).  “Writing” is defined to include “handwriting, typewriting, printing . . . and every other means of recording upon any form of communication or representation . . ..”  Cal. Govt. Code Section 6252(f).  The fact that the minutes taken at the meeting are, for example, still in handwritten form would therefore seem not to be a valid basis for withholding them from the public.