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VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. "OFFICIAL RECORDS" DO NOT
INCLUDE TAPE RECORDINGS MADE AS RACK-UP FOR SHORTHAND NOTES TAKEN TO
PREPARE MINUTES OF MEETING.
September 10, 1982
The Honorable Robert E. Kowalsky, Jr.
Commonwealth's Attorney for the City of Chesapeake
82-83 722
This is in reply to your letter of August 27, 1982, inquiring
whether any provision of Virginia law prohibits the erasure of tape
recordings of school board meetings after the minutes of the meeting
have been prepared. You have advised that shorthand notes are taken
during the meeting and later transcribed as minutes of the meeting
and that the tape recording is used for reference in case there is a
question in the transcription of the shorthand notes. The tape is
then reused at the next meeting.
The Virginia Freedom of Information Act and the Virginia Public
Records Act (the "Acts") provide for disclosure and retention of
public records. In this case, however, it appears from the practices
you describe that the tape recording is not intended to be the record
of the school board meeting, but rather it is intended to serve as an
aid in preparing the minutes which are required by the Freedom of
Information Act.
It is, therefore, my opinion that the minutes of the meeting would
be the records that are governed by each of the Acts and that the
tape recordings are simply aids in producing such records.1
I am unaware of any other provision of law which would prohibit the
erasure of the tapes under the circumstances you describe.
Accordingly, I conclude that Virginia law does not prohibit the
erasure of tape recordings of a school board meeting which are made
for reference purposes in preparing the minutes of the meeting.
_____________________________
Footnotes:
1 If, however, the tape recordings were intended to
be the records of the meeting, they would fall within the purview of
the Acts.
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