Board to tape and air meetings
Feb. 10, 2005
NORTH KINGSTOWN - Facing pressure from some members of the public, and at the request of a couple of committee members, the School Committee will begin taping and televising all of its meetings by the middle of next month.
Last week's vote, which was 5-0 with committee members
Don DeFedele and Bill Mudge both absent, authorized Superintendent James Halley
to seek the most cost-effective way to get the board's meetings from the
administration building to residents' homes on a regular basis.
Resident Chris Prata, who also maintains a Web site dedicated to issues
surrounding the town government, has been using his own time and money to tape
the meetings and broadcast them on Cox Communications channel 18 since November.
Prata said he was pleased with the board's vote, saying it will really open up
government for those who are unable to attend the committee's meetings.
"It's not like the old days where everyone gets out of work at 5 [p.m.] and
has time to go to a town meeting," he said. "It makes a lot of sense
to put them on television for all to see."
Halley said he was looking into the different ways to implement the charge,
noting that the cheapest way might be to simply set up a camera in the front or
side of the meeting room and tape just the School Committee for the entire
meeting without changing angles. This would save the committee the time and
money of having to hire someone to operate the camera during the meetings.
He said the camera would most likely be hooked up to the room's sound system so
comments from administration members would be recorded, although they might not
necessarily appear on the camera as they spoke.
"We're going to do this, but we're going to make sure we do this
right," he said.
He said he has not had time to fully investigate estimates for the proposal,
although he thought it would be relatively inexpensive. After the committee
purchased the camera, only the cost of the tapes would become reoccurring
expenditures for the board.
However, Prata said it is not enough for the School Department to tape the
meetings, he also wants to see copies placed in a location, like the town
library, where the public can readily access them to watch and to copy, and also
make sure nothing happens to the tapes. This summer, audio recordings of the
School Committee meetings were erased from a central office computer.
"There are a lot of trust issues here," he said.
While he is satisfied with the board's move for now, Prata said he envisions a
more technological solution to bringing the functions of government to the
people. With technology and bandwidth prices continuing to drop, he said, the
town should look into installing Web cameras in each of the meeting rooms so
meetings can be archived and accessed online.
"This is the kind of thing that would really open up meetings to the
public," he said.
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Christopher Prata on ABC6 (followed by candidate Bill Gilbert) from a Hummel Investigative Report into our School Department's contracting issues.