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Show Judge to Decide If Public Has Right To Minutes of Board of Education said Mr. Christensen. Such a "public "pub-lic busybody complex" could hamper action by the board, he said. In citing what he described as unreasonable requests of the plaintiff's, Mr. Christensen said a clerk, in public meeting, taking official notes, might jot down that Continued on Page Two. The question of whether or not the public has the right to learn what decisions its elected representatives repre-sentatives have taken in official meetings before action has been taken on the decisions, was taken under advisement by Judge Wm. Stanley Dunford, following a suit heard in the Fourth district court Wednesday. The judge will give his ruling some time in the future. The suit was filed a few weeks ago by Margaret Conover, wife of Harrison Conover, Springville publisher, pub-lisher, and Mrs. Lorraine Beach, charging that the clerk of the Nebo School board had refused to provide them with minutes of a board meeting held the previous evening, on grounds the minutes had not been "approved by the board." The plaintiffs charged that the school board customarily took action ac-tion on decisions made in meetings long before the minutes were formally for-mally approved at subsequent meetings of the board. Max K. Mangum, attorney for the plaintiffs, cited statutes to prove that the clerk is specifically appointed to take official notes of school- board meetings so that a public record is made of action taken. He cited several law cases to show the original notes , taken by the clerk are public documents. The Utah statutes do not give anyone but the clerk the right to record action of the board, he said. Transcribing his notes is no more than a "clerical process," Mr. Mangum said. Since it is the official offi-cial duty of the clerk and no one else to take notes, he's assumed to be accurate, said Attorney. Mangum. Man-gum. The defense, on the other hand, argued that notes taken by the clerk were -only "tentative" notes, and that sufficient time must elapse for his mental processes to evaluate the action taken. Even so, he must still verify what he recorded and what he evaluated with the school board, the defense declared. The suit of the plaintiffs named members of1 the Nebo Board of Education including Harold Christensen, Chris-tensen, La Von Payne, L. J. Crabb, William F. Broadbent and Dr. Jesse Ellsworth and B. L. Isaac, clerk of the board. Defense Attorney Sherman Christensen declared that: the legal status of action taken by a board is no more than "a gleam in the clerk's eye" until court action has been officially signed. The plaintiffs have no right to demand an immediate inspection of notes, to "dictate" to the board when and how his notes shall be recorded in the official journal, Judge to Decide on Public Right to Minutes Continued from Page One, an attorney's speech was pret-dull. pret-dull. "Would this be an officii note?" he asked. He then tum to County Clerk Warren P, Kit; and demanded, "Suppose I askp to see your notes right now-it. mediately." Mr. Kirk amiatv, handed over the notes. (Count! clerk's records are available to it press at all times transcribed t: i un transcribed.) i |