Dorr trustees approve DRAFT Minutes

On Tuesday night the trustees of Dorr Township approved the draft Minutes of the April 15, 2010, monthly Town meeting. They didn't approve the Minutes, because the Minutes weren't ready, in spite of nearly four weeks to prepare them.

Fortunately for the record, one sharp-eyed resident was in attendance and pointed out numerous corrections needed. Then the trustees approved them.

In thinking more about what they approved, the trustees approved the draft of the Minutes, not the Minutes themselves. They couldn't have approved the Minutes, because the Minutes weren't ready. It will be interesting to see how the May Minutes will read, when they are presented to the trustees at the June 8 meeting.

The draft Minutes for April 15, 2010, were exactly that. In fact, they were a rough draft. They were so rough that they shouldn't even have been presented to the trustees. There were numerous incomplete sentences, spacing and punctuation errors, and sentences that just didn't make any sense at all.

So there was really nothing for them to approve. They should have directed that the final Minutes be prepared for their consideration, so that they could then provide any corrections before approving.

But perhaps the case is that the trustees didn't read them carefully before approving them, did not themselves even recognize any of the many errors present, or just didn't care about requiring that the record be understandable and exact.