St. Marks City Hall Hides Meeting Agendas, Minutes | The Locally Times
For ten commission meetings in 2026, the City of St. Marks' official website displays only internal programming code instead of public records, preventing resident access to government proceedings.
A review of the City of St. Marks’ official website shows that public records for ten City Commission meetings in 2026 are inaccessible, displaying internal programming code instead of agendas and minutes. This issue, which follows a previous report by The Locally Times on the city’s inaccessible online portal, effectively walls off public access to government proceedings for most of the year. The consistent error across all ten entries indicates a systemic issue rather than an isolated one. ## Code Confirms Public Lockout The technical code displayed on the city's website provides insight into the failure. Each meeting record entry contains the command `RZ.template = '*none*'`. This instruction explicitly tells the website’s software that there is no design template for displaying the information, meaning no agenda or minutes can be shown. Furthermore, the code includes the option `@@nolink@@`, which confirms that no link to any document is intended to be active for the public. The pages appear to be back-end administrative entries that have been made public without the corresponding public documents. The underlying data is configured to hide, not display, any official information. ## A Year of Decisions Shielded from View The complete absence of accessible agendas and minutes for these ten meetings leaves the public without any official online record of what the St. Marks City Commission decided for most of 2026. The records do not specify what zoning changes, budget allocations, contracts, or other municipal business were discussed or approved during this period. This lack of transparency makes it impossible for residents to hold officials accountable for their decisions. The city's website provides no explanation for the missing documents. The online records do not indicate if agendas and minutes for these ten meetings exist in a physical format or are available through an alternative process, leaving the public without an official account of the commission's actions.