Meeting record backlog irks San Mateo County Community College District Board

“This kind of good hygiene in a public agency is very basic and I mean this is Small Town USA 101,” said Trustee John Pimentel. “We should not have a problem like this with a $500-million-a-year organization, that we can’t find someone to type up our minutes.”

The pointed discussion during the meeting Monday, Dec. 14, arrived more than one year after trustees previously instructed administrators to clean up the process for minutes keeping, as well as broadcasting meetings to the public.

Remarking that the discussion feels like “Groundhog Day,” the Bill Murray movie in which the same day keeps repeating itself, Trustee Maurice Goodman said the backlog of meeting minutes appears as an indictment on the district’s commitment to transparency.

“At this point, it is our public that is losing out here when it comes to our meetings being months and months behind,” said Goodman.

For his part, Chancellor Michael Claire admitted that the logjam is a problem and committed to fixing it soon.

“We are way behind, and that is unacceptable,” said Claire, adding he plans to return next month with a proposed policy revision which will streamline the process for keeping and publishing minutes.

Officials initiated a discussion regarding minutes and access to board meetings in June 2019. Former chancellor Ron Galatolo had proposed to whittle down the depth of the traditionally exhaustive written minutes to a format which mostly tracks board action and omits much of the discussion surrounding issues.

Trustees at the time scoffed at the proposal to limit the scope of the minutes outright, and instead instructed officials to begin recording meetings with hopes of providing a supplemental document to which those interested can refer.

Administrators returned with a proposal to install in the board room recording equipment projected to cost as much as $100,000. Trustees again disagreed that the initiative would cost so much, nodding to the variety of other local agencies which broadcast meetings for much less money.

The district eventually was forced by the pandemic to broadcast video conferenced meetings, which are recorded and stored on the school system’s website. With the reliance on the new technology, Claire suggested introducing less comprehensive written minutes with time stamped indexes so those wanting to refer to the video for more details can easily access the material.

“What I’m advocating for is really a complete overhaul of our process,” he said.

Trustees appreciated that proposal, while urging Claire and his team to be more attentive to the issue.

“I think there is great urgency around being brought current. I think we need a policy saying there are X numbers of days, weeks, months by which the minutes are going to be prepared for action,” said board Vice President Richard Holober.

Cañada Spanish professor Monica Malamud added that there is plenty of software available which can help transcribe the meetings and bring the district up to speed.

“It’s just a matter of having the will to do this because I don’t think in the year 2020 this should be an issue,” she said. “It’s just a simple thing to do and a matter of doing it.”

Pimentel agreed, while adding he believes the district needs to be more attentive to honesty and accessibility.

“We should not have public meetings that are not audio and video recorded and we should not wait more than a week to have those minutes that are out for review for the public and a website very soon that actually includes functional data on the performance of our district that we can stand by and be held accountable to,” he said.

In other business, officials briefly discussed an opportunity to use the summer session as a transition to a fall semester when students will hopefully be able to begin returning to campus.

The district, which has been solely offering classes online since the spring, will continue in remote learning through the rest of the existing school year. But Claire expressed some optimism with the arriving vaccine that campuses could begin reopening in 2021.

austin@smdailyjournal.com