The Open Meetings Law’s record rule never says minutes. Here is what Wisconsin actually requires
Search the record requirement of Wisconsin's Open Meetings Law for the word minutes and you come up empty. Wis. Stat. 19.88(3) requires a record of motions and roll call votes, nothing more. The minutes duties clerks actually carry live somewhere else entirely: the clerk statutes. Here is how the two layers fit together.
- What the OML requires
- A record of "the motions and roll call votes of each meeting," recorded, preserved, and open to public inspection. It applies to open and closed sessions alike (Wis. Stat. 19.88(3))
- Minutes under the OML
- Written minutes are the most common way to comply, but not the only permissible method, and the OML itself requires no detail beyond motions and roll call votes (DOJ OML Guide, March 2025, pp. 23 to 24)
- Where minutes duties really live
- The clerk statutes: county 59.23(2)(a) ("true minutes"), village 61.25(3) ("full minutes" in a minute book), city 62.09(11)(b) and town 60.33(2)(a) ("full record of its proceedings")
- Timing
- No statutory deadline anywhere. DOJ has argued the record is required "at the time of the meeting in question or as soon thereafter as practicable" (Journal Times case, per OML Guide p. 24)
- Voting and recordings
- No secret ballots except electing the body’s own officers (19.88(1)); any member may demand a recorded vote (19.88(2)); recordings made to prepare minutes (city, village, town, and school district bodies) may be destroyed no sooner than 90 days after the minutes are approved and published (19.21(7))
The record the Open Meetings Law actually requires
Ask most Wisconsin clerks what the Open Meetings Law says about minutes and they will tell you it requires them. Its record requirement does not. That requirement is one sentence, and the word minutes is not in it:
“The motions and roll call votes of each meeting of a governmental body shall be recorded, preserved and open to public inspection to the extent prescribed in subch. II of ch. 19.” (Wis. Stat. 19.88(3))
That is the whole obligation: motions and roll call votes, recorded, preserved, open to inspection. And it applies to every meeting, which means closed sessions too. The Wisconsin Department of Justice is explicit that the requirement covers both open and closed sessions (OML Guide, March 2025, p. 23), and because the record is then open “to the extent prescribed” by the Public Records Law, a closed session vote is not a secret vote. It is a recorded vote whose record a custodian must release unless a specific exemption or the balancing test justifies withholding it.
What the DOJ says that record means
The DOJ’s Open Meetings Law Compliance Guide (March 2025, pp. 23 to 24) fills in the practical picture. On method: “Written minutes are the most common method used to comply with the requirement, but they are not the only permissible method.” The motions and roll call votes can be recorded and preserved another way, such as on a recording. On scope: “As long as the body creates and preserves a record of all motions and roll-call votes, it is not required by the open meetings law to take more formal or detailed minutes of other aspects of the meeting.” And then the sentence that sets up the rest of this article: “Other statutes outside the open meetings law, however, may prescribe particular minute-taking requirements for certain governmental bodies and officials that go beyond what is required by the open meetings law.”
On detail, the guide reads the law’s open-government policy to mean the record should give the public “a reasonably intelligible description of the essential substantive elements of every motion made, who initiated and seconded the motion, the outcome of any vote on the motion, and, if a roll-call vote, how each member voted” (p. 24). It also warns that consent agendas, where separately discussed items are approved in a single motion, are “likely insufficient” to satisfy 19.88(3).
On timing, there is no statutory deadline. But in Journal Times v. City of Racine Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, where a closed session motion was not written up until minutes were approved three months later, DOJ argued in a non-party brief that 19.88(3) requires the record of motions to be made “at the time of the meeting in question or as soon thereafter as practicable.” The court resolved the case on other grounds, and the guide now states that same timing as the advisable practice (p. 24). Sitting on an unwritten motion for a quarter is the fact pattern that drew the lawsuit.
Where the real minutes duties live
So if the Open Meetings Law’s record requirement does not demand minutes, why does every Wisconsin clerk keep them? Because their own office statute says so. The duty is not in chapter 19 at all. It sits in the statutes that define each clerk’s job, and the DOJ guide cites these exact sections as the “other statutes” that go beyond the OML:
- Town clerk (Wis. Stat. 60.33(2)(a)): “Serve as clerk of the town board, attend meetings of the board and keep a full record of its proceedings.”
- Village clerk (Wis. Stat. 61.25(3)): the clerk must attend all meetings of the village board, “record and sign the proceedings thereof,” and keep “a minute book” containing “full minutes of all the proceedings of the board of trustees.”
- City clerk (Wis. Stat. 62.09(11)(b)): “The clerk shall attend the meetings of the council and keep a full record of its proceedings.”
- County clerk (Wis. Stat. 59.23(2)(a)): act as clerk of the board at all its meetings and “keep and record true minutes of all the proceedings of the board in a format chosen by the clerk, including all committee meetings,” plus “record the vote of each supervisor on any question submitted to the board, if required by any member present.”
Read the wording closely, because it is not uniform. Only the county statute says “true minutes,” and only it names committee meetings and lets the clerk choose the format. The village statute says “full minutes” in a minute book. The town and city statutes never use the word minutes either; they require “a full record of its proceedings,” which in practice every town and city clerk satisfies with minutes. The layering matters: 19.88(3) is the floor that applies to every governmental body, including committees, commissions, and boards with no clerk statute of their own, while the clerk statutes add the fuller minutes duty for the governing board the clerk serves.
Secret ballots, demanded roll calls, and the 90 day recording rule
Three neighboring rules feed the same record. First, no secret ballot may be used to decide anything except the election of the body’s own officers (Wis. Stat. 19.88(1)). A board cannot fill a vacancy or award a contract by secret ballot. Second, any single member may require that a vote be taken so that each member’s vote is ascertained and recorded (19.88(2)). One member’s demand converts a voice vote into a by-name record, and once there is a roll call, 19.88(3) requires it to be preserved. Those personal stakes are real: Open Meetings Law violations carry forfeitures of $25 to $300 per violation against individual members (19.96), which we cover in our post on personal fines under the Open Meetings Law.
Third, for bodies of a city, village, town, or school district, a recording made for the purpose of preparing minutes “may be destroyed no sooner than 90 days after the minutes have been approved and published” (Wis. Stat. 19.21(7)). The clock does not start at the meeting; it starts at approval and publication, which is one more reason not to let draft minutes sit. The full rule, and what it means for boards that livestream, is in our guide to how long to keep meeting recordings in Wisconsin.
A checklist for a compliant record
Put the OML floor, the clerk statutes, and the DOJ’s guidance together and a record that satisfies all three looks like this:
- Date, time, and place, plus attendance. The clerk statutes’ “full record” starts here, and the DOJ notes that even a unanimous voice vote after a recorded-vote demand only passes if the minutes reflect who is present (OML Guide p. 23).
- Every motion, written out in full, with who moved and who seconded it. The DOJ’s standard is a reasonably intelligible description of the essential substantive elements of every motion (p. 24). Capturing the motion’s exact language as made is the practice that always clears that bar.
- Every roll call vote recorded by name. Not “motion carried.” If it was a roll call, the record shows how each member voted (19.88(3); OML Guide p. 24).
- Closed session motions and votes, recorded exactly the same way. 19.88(3) does not distinguish, and neither should the record. Keep the closed session record separate so the custodian can apply the Public Records Law to it on its own terms.
- Approve and publish promptly. No statute sets a deadline, but the DOJ’s at-the-meeting-or-as-soon-as-practicable position is the standard a court would hear first, and approval plus publication is what starts the 19.21(7) recording clock.
None of this is more than most Wisconsin boards already do. The point of knowing where each requirement comes from is knowing which parts are the legal floor, which parts are the clerk’s own statutory duty, and which parts are practice. The record is the board’s proof, for every open session and every closed one, that it decided in public view what the law says must be decided in public view.
Dekree runs this workflow for Michigan local governments today: minutes drafted from the meeting in the body’s own format, with motions and roll calls always captured. We are bringing the platform to Wisconsin next. To bring Dekree to your office, email contact@dekree.ai with the subject line Wisconsin and we will add your office to the Wisconsin rollout list.
Common questions
Are meeting minutes legally required in Wisconsin?
Not by the Open Meetings Law, which requires only that motions and roll call votes be recorded, preserved, and open to public inspection (Wis. Stat. 19.88(3)). But for most local governing boards the answer is still yes, because the clerk statutes impose the duty separately: the county clerk must "keep and record true minutes" of board proceedings (59.23(2)(a)), the village clerk must keep a minute book with "full minutes" (61.25(3)), and the town and city clerks must keep "a full record" of board and council proceedings (60.33(2)(a), 62.09(11)(b)).
Do closed sessions need minutes in Wisconsin?
The 19.88(3) record requirement applies to closed sessions the same as open ones: the motions and roll call votes of each meeting must be recorded and preserved, and the Wisconsin DOJ confirms the requirement covers both open and closed sessions (OML Guide, March 2025, p. 23). Those records are then open to public inspection to the extent prescribed by the Public Records Law, which has no blanket exemption for closed session records.
How fast must minutes be completed in Wisconsin?
There is no statutory deadline. The DOJ notes the Open Meetings Law "does not specify a timeframe," but in the Journal Times case DOJ argued that 19.88(3) requires the record of motions to be made "at the time of the meeting in question or as soon thereafter as practicable," and the March 2025 guide states that same timing as the advisable practice (OML Guide, p. 24). Waiting months to write up a closed session vote is exactly the fact pattern that produced that litigation.
Can a recording take the place of written minutes?
Under the Open Meetings Law alone, yes: the DOJ says written minutes are the most common method of compliance but not the only permissible one, and the motions and roll call votes may be recorded and preserved another way, such as on a recording (OML Guide, March 2025, p. 23). But the clerk statutes still require a written record or minutes for county, city, village, and town boards, and for bodies of a city, village, town, or school district, a recording made for the purpose of preparing minutes may be destroyed no sooner than 90 days after the minutes are approved and published (Wis. Stat. 19.21(7)).
This article is educational information for Wisconsin authorities and governmental bodies, current as of the publication date. It is not legal advice, and statutes and court decisions change. Confirm specifics with your municipal attorney. Statute text: docs.legis.wisconsin.gov.