Matt Ready

On 1/14/2021 the Jefferson County Public Hospital District Commission voted unanimously to add language to the Board Book (the board policy book) that states if a commissioner independently records an open public meeting of the commission, the commissioner will promptly give a copy of the recording to the district for public records storage.  The commissioners present seem to all indicate this policy will prevent future public confrontations and conflicts over a commissioner recording meetings as happened in 2014 and 2016 and which led to several public confrontations in the years following where those incidents were discussed.  Many questions are still unanswered about this controversy but the commission is considering taking steps to answer at least some of those questions.

The two questions that seem to be answered and agreed to by all members of the commission:

1. A commissioner has the right to record any open public meeting of the commission whether regular or special session, on site or offsite (as do all residents of the United States)
2. No one can (or should try to) prohibit a recording of anyone in an open public meeting, even if they personally object to the recording.

Neither of these two points were ever in doubt for me personally, but it is good that all the commissioners have now agreed on these to facts of law (and ethics).

Everyone also agreed it was appropriate to require by policy that commissioner give a copy of any personally made recordings to the district for safe keeping, but this was never controversial and has been the defacto standard of practice by me since the very first meeting I recorded in 2014.

It is unfortunate and concerning that it has taken 7 years and enormous amounts of energy to get to this point but at least some progress is being made.