The minute entries are signed by the secretary of the committee and include listings of the items of business heard at each committee meeting, along with the action taken by the committee. While the entries do not give much detail on the projects under discussion, the minutes as a whole give an overview of the process by which the city's infrastructure was maintained during the period. A sample entry from the May 26, 1859 meeting reads "#6, communication from Mssrs. Surgi and Passau with a plan for erecting a fountain in Lafayette Square -- lay over."