Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Clerk

TO:	Thomas M. Markus, City Manager
CC:	Diane Stoddard, Casey Toomay, Brandon McGuire
FROM:	Sherri Riedemann, City Clerk
DATE:	July 5, 2017
RE:	Official Record Inquiry

A citizen recently requested that communications sent to all commissioners and the City Manager’s office be included in the official record. In discussions with City Manager Markus, staff determined it will evaluate whether an electronic folder can be established on the city’s website that provides viewing access to correspondence received by the City Commissioners and the city manager’s office. 

In addition, concerns were raised about the timely posting of minutes to the City’s website. Minutes from City Commission meetings are first posted to the City’s website when placed on an agenda for approval. In most cases, minutes are completed and ready for commission approval at the next regular meeting. Because agendas are posted the Thursday preceding the meeting, minutes are available for review by the public within three days. Minutes from the third meeting of each month are posted later due to the absence of a meeting (and agenda) the following week. A video recording is available upon completion of the meeting and can be viewed in the interim period. Once approved, an additional link to the minutes for each meeting is provided. At the time of the citizen inquiry, this additional link for some meeting dates was not updated. This has been addressed and should not be a problem going forward.