The City Council will have a brief meeting to discuss the disclosure of the minutes of previous closed meetings, and eliminating old recordings at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Scott Smith, the city manager of Charleston, said the council reviews closed meeting minutes every six months, and it is “just the time of year” when they approve these minutes.

The Illinois Open Meetings Act states requires all meetings to keep written minutes of both their open and closed meetings. The council will review a resolution to make sure it is no longer necessary to protect the public interest or privacy of any individuals, and to no longer have to keep it confidential.

If passed, this resolution would be put into effect immediately and be fully enforced.

City Council will also discuss the destruction of video and audio recordings of closed session meetings. This will mean the closed session footage will be destroyed if it is older than 18 months old.

The Illinois Open Meetings Act also states that governmental bodies such as Charleston’s City Council are required to take audio or video records of their closed meetings.

The act allows these governmental bodies to destroy the records of closed meetings if the footage is over 18 months old.

The meetings for which the records will be determined whether to be destroyed include January 2, 2013, February 5, 2013 March 5, 2013, and June 4, 2013.

A raffle license for a benefit at Lefty’s Holler at 727 7th Street will also be addressed. The benefit is to raise funds for Margaret Carpenter’s last medical expenses.

In order to have this raffle, the benefit needs to acquire a permit, give it to the city clerk, and get it approved by the council. Our Hope for Others will be hosting the benefit.

The date of the alleged raffle chance sale commencement will be February 4th. The winner of the raffle will be notified on February 28.

Smith said the meeting will be a “one vote, consent agenda meeting,” and that the council “knew the meeting would be light” because of the way they scheduled it.

Part of the reason it is scheduled this way is that the city is currently in the middle of their budgeting process. Many of the items to be discussed where also talked about at the last meeting.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].