Are city council meetings required to be recorded on audio or videotape?
Except for closed session meetings of the city council pursuant to Section 21.5 of the Code, there is no requirement that council meetings be recorded. Many councils do record their proceedings in order to have an accurate record from which to prepare the minutes. Inasmuch as there is no requirement to tape, there is no requirement to retain these tapes. While the tapes are in existence, however, they are considered a public record and must be made available if requested. Cities that record their proceedings may want to work with their city attorney to develop proper procedures for handling this issue. As more cities begin to videotape and broadcast their meetings over local access channels, this will become less of an issue. Section 21.5, subsection 4 requires that the detailed minutes and tape recording of a closed session be retained for a period of a least one year.
