Minutes of the Warren County Board of Supervisors informal meetings will be recorded, but actions will remain nonbinding, the board’s attorney said Wednesday.

Minutes of all meetings of public bodies, whether in open or closed session or those conducted via teleconference, must be kept to show final actions taken at those meetings, according to state law. The law doesn’t distinguish between formal and informal meetings.

Board counsel Marcie Southerland jotted minutes for a work session Monday, at District 1 Supervisor John Arnold’s urging. For now, a recommendation at a government workshop from the head of the Mississippi Ethics Commission to that effect is good enough, she said.

“We’re going to keep minutes and do what’s been recommended,” said Southerland, who will continue to record minutes at the informal meetings.

Meetings in which votes are recorded by the chancery clerk are held in the board room at Warren County Courthouse on the first and third Mondays of each month. The informal meetings, usually held on the second and fourth Mondays in the conference room at supervisors’ Jackson Street offices, are announced publicly and involve topics to be hashed out before a formal vote is taken.

“There’s never any actions (in informal meetings) and nothing is formalized,” Southerland said.

Proper open meetings procedure came up in Tupelo in October during a county government workshop sponsored by the Mississippi Association of Supervisors in which Ethics Commission Director Tom Hood spoke. Arnold attended the conference with Board President Bill Lauderdale.

The eight-member ethics board issues advisory opinions which do not carry the force of law.