The Chatham County, Georgia Board of Commissioners has

its agendas and minutes online.


The agenda for

2 December 2011
does not include the detailed packet materials for most of the
items to be voted on.
However, it does include a table of dollar amounts and other details
for bids that were to be voted on,
so the public doesn’t have to go to the work session and scribble
down what staff read aloud.

There’s also this interesting boilerplate:

Proposed changes to ordinances must be read or presented in written
form at two meetings held not less than one week apart. A vote on the
following listed matters will occur at the next regularly scheduled
meeting. On first reading, presentation by MPC staff and discussion only
by Commissioners will be heard.

Comments, discussion and debate from
members of the public will be received only at the meeting at which a
vote is to be taken on one of the following listed items.

So in Chatham County the Commission can’t just decide one day to
change an ordinance.

Also it appears that the public does get to discuss and debate ordinance
changes.

The


minutes for 2 December 2011
contain quite a bit of detail as to who said what.
Plus for each agenda item that was approved it includes
the agenda packet information,
such as item IX-2 on the right here,
which is about local participation in jail construction.

This isn’t as transparent as
Travis County, Texas.
Chatham County doesn’t put the agenda packet items in the agenda,
and doesn’t do videos.
But it’s still more transparent than Lowndes County, Georgia,
which doesn’t provide agenda packet items unless you do an open records request
for each item you want to see.

-jsq