A draft of the minutes is a protected document under the Government Records Access and Management Act and not available to the public unless the draft is being relied on by the city or town to carry out public policy. The point in time when a draft set of minutes becomes a final copy is up to each city or town. There is nothing in the law which requires that the city or town council read and approve the minutes before they become a public document, but that is the tradition in most municipalities. The only risk in such a procedure is if the draft of the minutes are inaccurate to the point that they mislead the public as to what actually occurred in the meeting. This risk can be managed by making it clear on the face of any draft disseminated to the public that the minutes were only in draft form and subject to change.
Minutes are important for two reasons.
They are the historical record of the city or town. They also serve to inform the residents of what their local government is doing. If they are to serve these two functions they must be accurate, complete, kept for ever, and available to the public as soon as possible following the meeting. Minutes should not be used to hide mistakes, or for political propaganda. Accurate minutes which are freely available to anyone to read are not only required by law they should be the goal of all city officials.