The Council minutes are currently transcribed near verbatim or in very detailed summary.  There has been some discussions with past Councils about going to a more executive style minutes format, however, the consensus at that time was to keep the minutes more detailed.  Attached to this case is the most recent discussion of the minutes format (City Council Work Session - April 8, 2008). 

This topic has come up again for discussion as a budget cost saving measure.  New technology implementation has made all meeting recordings available on the City web site.  This makes the record of current and past meetings readily available to residents and City officials as needed.  

The City of Ramsey's Code states that the proceedings of the Council shall be conducted in accordance with Robert's Rules of Order.  With regard to the minutes, the Code states only that preparation is required.  Ordinances, resolutions and claims need not be recorded in full in the minutes if they appear in other permanent records of the City.  It also states that the minutes of each meeting shall be reduced to typewritten form, shall be signed by the city clerk, and copies shall be delivered to Council.  The Code does not state the format of minutes required.    Staff has attached that portion of the City Code to this report as well. 

In reviewing Robert's Rules of Order, it states the following:  "The record of the proceedings of a deliberative assembly is usually called the Minutes, or the Record, or the Journal.  In the meetings of ordinary societies, there is no object in reporting the debates; the duty of the secretary, in such cases, is mainly to record what is "done" by the assembly, and not what is said by the members."  It goes on to list the necessary content for minutes.  Staff has attached a copy of that for Council information.  

Staff also researched what the League of Minnesota Cities states relating to minutes.  The League states what the contents of the minutes must be which is the same as Robert's Rules of Order - who is present, who makes the motion, roll call, etc.  The League information also includes a recommendation by the Office of the State Auditor as to what should be included in the minutes, such as identity of parties to whom contracts were awarded, reasons for abstentions to votes, reasons why a bid was awarded to someone other than the lowest bidder, etc .  This information is also included in the topic report.

Staff surveyed a number of cities to determine what type of meeting minutes they take. It varies from City to City - and actually from meeting to meeting or topic to topic. Attached is the survey results that were received by the time of this case writing.

In the agenda setting meeting this past Monday when staff was going over the case line-up for this meeting, it was suggested that it may be beneficial for the work sessions and committee meetings that are not recorded on DVD's to be transcribed in more detail.

If it is Council's intent to get to a more executive style minute format, a cost savings could be realized.  Currently TimeSavers charges one of two ways - Base rate plus hourly for each 30 minutes or hourly rate plus page rate of minutes prepared, whichever amount is greater.  Using the second scenario, if minutes were transcribed into executive type minutes, the pages may be reduced by at least half.  Therefore, if a meeting was 10 typed pages at $12.30 per page ($123.00), and that was reduced to five pages ($61.50), that times two regular Council meetings per month, could be equivalent to about a $3,000 savings per year.  TimeSavers has also indicated each meeting is reduced by $20 per meeting if the minutes are transcribed via DVD or the web stream broadcast.  That would reduce the cost of transcription by another $480 per year for Council alone (2 regular meetings per month), plus another approximate $480 per year for HRA at two regular meetings per month.  With the simplification of the minutes, it will also be a viable option to consider doing Council meeting minutes with existing staff instead of Timesavers.  These calculations do not include work sessions and committee meetings as they are not audio or video recorded.