As my fellow Councilman, Dave Fishman, says in his comment below (See comments relating to my Sunday, September 13th posting,) our next work session on October 7th, which starts at 5:00 pm, will address whether or not we should start televising our work sessions. All our meetings are open to the public and, except for Executive Sessions which are limited to narrowly defined topics under NY Law and which must be approved by a vote of a majority of the Board members during the meeting of the Board, everyone is welcome to sit in and observe.
One of the objections likely to be raised will be the possible expense, another will be the "logistics." Our conference room "A" where the work sessions usually take place, is not currently set up for a live TV feed.
We often have very frank, open discussions during "Work Sessions" and opinions or positions are changeable. Where we start out from may not be where we end up at after an hour of "give and take" on an issue. I would hope that the presence of TV cameras would not inhibit these discussions and make compromising more difficult.
My feeling is that once we decide to "do" it, we can work out the details and, yes, I know, "The Devil is often in The Details."
Bottom line, in my opinion, it's the peoples' business and they have a right to know what's going on.
Opinions and thoughts always welcome.
Labels: Televised Work Sessions?
posted by Ernie Odierna @ 9:31 AM
2 Comments:
Ernie:
I don't know where the practice, clearly also followed in Rye City, arose of doing legislative work of the Council in "work sessions", but it should be abandoned to the greatest extent possible.
While these are nominally open sessions, they are held at hours when it is difficult for most residents to attend in a conference room which is conducive neither to public participation nor to televising. People generally think that work sessions are merely technical recitations, rather than true meetings where the real legislative work of the Council, aside from the formal votes, is being done. Even televising these sessions at 5:00 would not allow very many residents to watch the proceedings.
The Mamaroneck Town Council should do its work at formal sessions as contemplated by the Open Meetings Law and not try to skirt that law through off-hour, misleadingly-titled "work sessions". Leave the work sessions for budget markups, drafting/reviewing RFP's, or other clearly technical work, the results of which can then be debated in the truly open, televised formal sessions.
Well said.
If there's nothing to hide, why does it appear much is hidden?
Thanks Ernie for giving us constituents a place to say something.
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