Council discusses making minutes easier to find; BoardDocs navigation raised as barrier

Council members raised accessibility concerns about how meeting minutes and agendas are posted online, saying the current setup on BoardDocs can make it hard for residents to find minutes tied to a specific meeting date.

Council President Kathy Pucci and several members described feedback from residents who told them it takes multiple clicks to locate minutes on BoardDocs and that the meeting-date linkage can be confusing. Pucci asked staff to ensure the agenda indicates when a request for emergency adoption is made and to include a short explanation of reasons for emergency adoption on the BoardDocs item so the public can see the justification without having to wait for emailed updates from departments.

Council and staff discussed options for making minutes easier to access from the city's official website. Mary Jo, the clerk, demonstrated the public-side BoardDocs view and pointed out a “view minutes” control on meeting pages; council members said the button currently can show minutes for a different date if minutes for a meeting have not yet been approved. Council members asked staff to either link minutes directly by meeting date or create a site category labeled "Minutes" that lists approved minutes by date, then link each date to the stored file.

Council agreed as a practical step to work with BoardDocs and the city web maintainer to improve user navigation and to post approved minutes on the city website in a way that makes the meeting date and minutes clearly discoverable.

Members emphasized that no rule changes are required to post minutes; the discussion focused on user-friendliness and ensuring the public can find approved minutes and brief justifications for emergency-adoption requests alongside agenda items.

Council asked staff to continue work on the issue and to report back once options for easier navigation and direct minute links are implemented.