Hancock County minutes dispute emerges (edited)
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NEW CUMBERLAND -- A dispute has arisen between Hancock County commissioners and the County Clerk’s Office over the proper methodology for keeping minutes of their meetings.
During the commission’s regular Aug. 28 meeting, Commissioner Paul Cowey moved to table the minutes from their Aug. 7 special meeting and Aug. 14 regular meeting, citing concerns with Robert’s Rules of Order.
At Friday’s regular meeting, County Clerk Karan Valenti took issue with the tabling, claiming commissioners asked her, in a private meeting on Aug. 28, to no longer include detailed discussions in the minutes.
"I was told that my minutes did not go along with Robert’s Rules and that there should be no discussion in those minutes," Valenti said. "It has been our long-standing practice to always have discussion in our minutes."
Providing an example, Valenti cited an instance when Commission President Eron Chek asked to "copy and paste" her statement on the county’s budget into the minutes for the March 27, 2025, meeting.
Valenti noted minutes also have not been included in meeting packets as of late, saying it, too, had been a long-standing practice for such documents to be included.
"Even if they weren’t approved at one meeting, they were in the packet for the next meeting," she said, citing the meeting packet from Feb. 23, 2023, as another example.
"Detailed minutes has been Hancock County’s long-standing practice," she said. "West Virginia code establishes what the minutes must maintain, at a minimum, but that just sets the floor."
Valenti reminded commissioners that West Virginia code would take precedence over Robert’s Rules, saying state code has no prohibition against more detailed minutes such as those that have been done in the county.
"Therefore, I’m not comfortable abandoning that practice, pursuant to an informal meeting with the commissioners," she said, requesting that, if changes are to be made, the commission adopt a specific, formal policy.
Valenti also requested that the commission have special meetings recorded on video, as is currently done with regular meetings, as a matter of transparency and for historical reasons.
Chek noted the commission previously voted to follow Robert’s Rules in conducting their meetings.
"I’m sure you can find those in the minutes," Chek said.
Friday, Cowey also moved that the minutes of the Aug. 28 meeting be tabled.
According to the 12th edition of Robert’s Rules, "the minutes should contain mainly a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members. The minutes must never reflect the secretary's opinion, favorable or otherwise, on anything said or done … To modify the rules governing what is regularly to be included in the minutes requires adoption of a special rule of order, although a majority vote may direct the inclusion of specific additional information in the minutes of a particular meeting."
Under West Virginia Code 6-9a-5: "Each governing body shall provide for the preparation of written minutes of all of its meetings. Subject to the exceptions set forth in section four of this article, minutes of all meetings except minutes of executive sessions, if any are taken, shall be available to the public within a reasonable time after the meeting and shall include, at least, the following information: (1) The date, time and place of the meeting; (2) The name of each member of the governing body present and absent; (3) All motions, proposals, resolutions, orders, ordinances and measures proposed, the name of the person proposing the same and their disposition; and (4) The results of all votes and, upon the request of a member, pursuant to the rules, policies or procedures of the governing board for recording roll call votes, the vote of each member, by name."