Farmville Town Manager Gerald Spates reversed a decision he made in July to stop recording Farmville Town Council and planning commission meetings.

According to an administrative policy included with council’s Wednesday meeting packet, meetings of the council and commission “shall be audio recorded.”

The policy states the clerk and secretary “shall use the audio recording for transcribing the official minutes.”

During Wednesday’s town council meeting, Spates announced the reversed policy during his monthly report. No council members, nor Mayor David Whitus, commented on the administrative action.

“We don’t have to record them … We just figured that it was easier for us to do it this way and not have to worry about it,” Spates said in a July interview.

“I think it’s an administrative call on my part,” Spates told The Herald on Wednesday regarding his decision to record the meetings again.

The recordings will begin with October’s town council meeting, he said.

“They can download the recordings … This way, (Town Clerk) Lisa (Hricko) will put the recordings of the meetings on our website right away.”

Spates said the recordings would be available after the meeting for about one month, until the following meeting’s recording can replace the previous.

The town won’t archive the recordings.

“The Library of Virginia says you don’t have to archive them … We don’t want to be responsible for archiving them in case something happens to a recording somewhere. And this way, people can go on there and download them right away if they want to.”

Spates pointed to “comments from some of the public,” when asked about the reversal.

“If we can accommodate them and be open, that’s what we want to be,” he said.

According to the policy, “The audio recordings will be removed from the website and destroyed once the official minutes have been approved.”

The policy also states the town “takes no responsibility for the quality of the audio recordings or any erasure of audio recording during a meeting.”

In a separate interview earlier this year, Whitus said Spates conferred with legal counsel in making the decision to stop recording the meetings.

There is no stipulation stating government bodies in Virginia must audio record their public meetings. According to the Code of Virginia, minutes, or discussion and actions of the body, are to be taken at all open meetings.

“Minutes, including draft minutes, and all other records of open meetings, including audio or audio/visual records shall be deemed public records and subject to the provisions of this chapter,” the code states.

According to Spates, draft meeting minutes of the council and commission are posted online within usually 10-15 days of the meeting.

Planning commissions and boards of supervisors in Buckingham, Cumberland and Prince Edward counties also audio record their meetings.