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A unanimous vote from a Senate committee Tuesday afternoon pushed forward a bill to make online indexed audio recordings of public meetings an acceptable substitute for written minutes.
"Our openness and ability for the public to witness and find the information online" enhances accessibility, said sponsoring Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal.
SB97 waives the longstanding requirement in law for government entities to provide written minutes of an open meeting if the entity maintains an online, publicly available digital recording that is indexed to show each agenda item, identifies each individual speaking and is easy to navigate.
After receiving 6-0 committee approval, the bill now goes to the full Senate.