{"id":2004,"date":"2011-05-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/minutes-online-vlcia-17-may-2011.html"},"modified":"2011-05-20T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T14:00:00","slug":"minutes-online-vlcia-17-may-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/minutes-online-vlcia-17-may-2011.html","title":{"rendered":"Minutes online? VLCIA 17 May 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/a>\nVLCIA is still indecisive about minutes online,\nbut is at least talking about it.\nSupport for publishing minutes came from a surprising source.\n

\nCol. Ricketts said he had been asked by Roy Copeland to look\nat putting the minutes online and had talked to local authorities\n(Parks & Recs, Hospital, Prison, Airport) and other economic development\nauthorities around Georgia\n(Macon, Albany, Tifton, Columbus, Savannah, and Augusta) and found\nnone of them publish minutes online.\nHe said their concern was prospective project details.\n

\nCol. Ricketts said Chairman Jerry Jennett asked him to talk\nto former Executive Director Ken Garren.\nRicketts said Garren said that even though\n\n\n

\nhe clearly understands the responses of those other economic development\norganizations in the state.\nHe did say, however, that in the interest of public relations and transparency\nthat he recommends you consider publishing the minutes.\n<\/blockquote>\nMary Gooding asked for clarification that none of\nthose other organizations publish their minutes.\nChairman Jerry Jennett noted that the minutes didn’t really\nexist until they were approved, and they could have an additional\nmeeting to screen out all the names of the projects,\nand have board and staff look at the projects separately.\nMary Gooding remarked that\n
\nBy the time we sanitize them\nit’s pretty much just going to be an agenda.\nI don’t know that it’s going to really tell those people who are interested\nin the minutes;\nthey’re just going to be frustrated by the time we sanitize them.\n<\/blockquote>\nFurther discussion about confidentiality.\nMary Gooding noted that it’s the state that assigns the project code names.\n
\nSo if we have project Dinosaur, our constituencies and our citizens\nwon’t know what project Dinosaur is,\nbut our competitors, the Albanys and the Tiftons,\nthey’ll definitely know.\n<\/blockquote>\nRoy Copeland said:\n
\nI think inasmuch as we can operate in a transparent manner\nand not disclose confidential information and contacts\nwe should endeavor to achieve that.\nI’m not saying we’ve got to vote on how to sanitize those minutes\nto protect the innocent, but I think we should at least look at it,\non a trial run basis, to see how it looks.\nWe do have minutes that are available; unofficial minutes.\nI think that there has to be some rational and productive way\nto disclose things such as financials, our budget review,\nour existing industry, park updates, etc.\nI think we can expunge the confidential things from the minutes\nto protect the so-called innocent.\n<\/blockquote>\nMary Gooding asked for a trial run and Roy Gooding agreed to\nwork with Allan Ricketts on that.\n

\nTom Call and Norman Bennett said nothing.\n

\nI think a tax-funded economic development authority ought to publish\nits minutes.\nI’d be really surprised if their minutes included details of meetings\nwith prospective project companies anyway.\nAnd I think the basic error in their approach is they consider\nthe Albanys and the Tiftons to be their principal competitors\nand not the Saginaw Michigans.\n

\nHere’s\n\nthe video:<\/a>\n

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