In every word you speak you make it clear to me That you’re playing wrong and your game ain’t strong; I’ve been in this too long, so just be moving on

    A few days ago, I got an email from a newspaper inquiring whether a record which was discussed in a public meeting was available to the public.  In this case, it was a letter that was discussed by the public body during a regularly-scheduled meeting of the body.

   I cannot imagine that a public body would think that a letter which was discussed freely and openly in a public meeting would NOT be a public record.  Granted, one might be able to close a letter relating to an employee matter if that letter was discussed in a closed meeting.  But once a letter is presented and discussed during an open meeting, I believe it loses any capability to be a closed record.  It’s open.  It’s the subject of a discussion that the public attended.  It’s part of the minutes of that meeting.  And it needs to be made available to the public upon request.

    I suppose there might be some argument that only part of the letter was discussed, and that part of the letter was not discussed, and therefore that part of the letter could be considered a closed record.  I wouldn’t dispute that theory.  But then the public body needs to redact what is still closed in the letter and make the rest open to the public, because the part that was discussed is part of the official record of that open meeting, and therefore it clearly should be an open record.