REDINGTON BEACH - After a three-month absence, the tape recorder will return to commission chambers.
Commissioners voted 5-0 Tuesday to resume audiotaping meetings.
"It was precautionary on our part," Mayor Bob Fountaine said Friday of the no-taping policy. "Everything has quieted down now."
At a meeting in November, Fountaine told commissioners he wasn't going to allow the town to tape commission meetings. He said people could bring their own recorder or a stenographer to meetings.
When questioned by the Neighborhood Times, he said he was tired of his critics using the recordings as ammunition against him and town employees.
At the Nov. 18 meeting, Fountaine said the commission was considering legal action against some residents and it needed to limit citizen access to those discussions.
The mayor said the commission's goal to gain access to damaged drainage on private property "could lead to potential litigation. In legal matters you should restrict the information you give people. It's the responsible thing to do."
Fountaine also said at the meeting he had a personal reason for wanting the tape-recording stopped.
He said the town shouldn't provide information to whoever had mailed packets to a dozen or more residents that contained copies of police and public record searches on town officials, their families, employees, and selected residents.
The commission then voted 4-1 to ban the taping. Vice Mayor Tim Gregson voted against the ban.
The state's open records law, commonly called the Sunshine Law, does not require government bodies to tape-record their meetings.
As long as they keep minutes that give a "brief summary or series of brief notes or memoranda reflecting the events of the meeting," they are following the law.
Fountaine never addressed the fact that limiting the flow of information at commission meetings had no bearing on the information that was distributed in the packets.
Those records are public, available to anyone, whether they attend a commission meeting or not.
