☀ Where’s the Webcast?
Northampton County’s Council has been webcasting its meetings for almost two months:
Digital video cameras installed early this year capture every exchange and argument during the council’s twice-monthly meetings in Easton. County residents — and everyone else, for that matter — can watch the meetings live, or catch up afterward using the new online video archives.
Lehigh County Commissioners dropped the idea last July, citing the cost ($39 thousand). Northampton set up its system for $16 thousand—less than half the Lehigh bid. I bet it can be done cheaper still.
Back in July, Bernie O’Hare of LV Ramblings called the Commissioners’ stated cost worries a smokescreen:
The truth is that most Lehigh County legislators would rather see you spend your evenings watching American Idol.
Most of us would prefer American Idol, but that shouldn’t stop the Commissioners from making their “public” meetings a lot more public.
We should get the cameras rolling inside Allentown’s City Council Chambers too. I’ll be checking in with Council members over the next week about their views, and will report back. (Councilman Michael Donovan called for webcasting back in April, but I haven’t heard anything since.)
Comments enabled
March 4th, 2010 at 12:44 am
Lehigh County will likely cost more bc of peculiarities in the meeting room. Of course, it would cost next to nothing to have someone just record on a flip cam, but the quality would be horrible.
What Dean Browning proposed was something very similar to what happened in NC, and don’t kid yourself, NC Council dragged its feet, too. The only reason it was done was bc they had already blown $680k on “renovations” to the star chamber that were supposed to include web casting.
This kind of transparency is long overdue.
March 4th, 2010 at 8:12 am
I like the idea of webcasting because I’m usually in class during the time of the actual council meetings (at least in the case of Allentown City Council). Its unlikely I’d tune in live from class, but I’d be interested in watching the video the next morning.
My feeling about this is that for a relatively small amount of money, the councils (or commissions, as it may be), can provide a good public service that has the potential to increase civic engagement and definitely helps with accountability – something of increasing importance as the quality of The Morning Call decreases. We already know that reporters are often unable to stay for whole meetings, and the paper just moved its print deadline up even earlier – coverage of council meetings is unlikely to improve if the paper continues to dissolve.
March 5th, 2010 at 10:59 am
The cost I recall for broadcasting Lehigh County’s meetings was $15,000. Even if the cost is more, and the use of taxpayer money is a concern, there are community oriented businesses, foundations and PAC’s (think PPL PAC) that would be on board with the idea of transparent and good government. There is no reason that the commissioners and the county executive couldn’t approach these people and offer them all kinds of free press and promotion in exchange for the money necessary to make these investments. I would imagine that the morning call would jump on board with the publicity end of things running a few articles showing the collective commitment to good government.
Good government isn’t free. It does require a level of commitment to make the investments necessary to make it possible. My guess is that the private and philanthropic sectors would jump on board if asked. But to get there, commissioners and the county executive have to agree on the importance and then resolve to pursue it.