There seems to be no good reason NOT to air Township Committee meetings

The letter below, written by Middletown resident Paul Jansen, was sent to me accompanied by a link to the video below, showing Mr. Don Watson handing a DVD recording of various township meetings to Township Administrator Tony Mercantante, for airing on Middletown's public access cable channels, Comcast 20 and Verizon Fios 26.

Even though these recordings have been made by community volunteers, at no cost to the Township, Middletown's governing body refuses to add them the limited playlist that runs on its public access channels.

Many excuses have been made over the past few years as to why the township couldn't or wouldn't record these meeting on their own for public airing ranging from the cost of producing the recordings to the possibility of persons "grandstanding" for the cameras, to the possible cost of litigation due to persons being recorded without their consent.  None of these excuses however hold water.

If anyone has taken the time to watch one of these videos they can see that NO grandstanding has ever taken place (other than by Township Committee members themselves). No one has ever objected to being recorded, after all it is a public meeting and all comment are recorded already and it has been shown that these video can be made for little to no cost (provided for free).

So what's the issue?

There really isn't one other than the Township's governing body would rather keep the resident in the dark about how their town is run - No transparency equals uniformed voters who vote for the majority incumbents.

Editor,

In a recent article in the Asbury Park Press about the two candidates running for Middletown Township Committee, Committeeman Massell stated that airing township meetings would cost $100,000. This is untrue. A group of people led by Don Watson have been video recording township meetings for the last 9 months. Mr. Watson and other volunteers, myself included, have recorded Township Committee meetings, library board meetings, and sewerage authority board meetings, among other public meetings. At each Township Committee meeting Mr. Watson presents a DVD with the previous meeting. This DVD could be shown on the township's own municipal access television station viewable 24/7 on Comcast channel 20 or Verizon FIOS channel 26. The township refuses to show the meetings, even though the recordings are provided free and unedited.

Paul J Jansen
Middletown, NJ





At every Township Committee meeting since March, the Township has been presented with a digital copy of the previous Committee meeting. For years the Committee has provided every excuse they could think of to not video record meetings and make them available for public viewing. The latest reason was that it would cost the Township over $100K to do this and it was cost prohibitive.

A small group of residents, from all party affilliation and some with no affilliation, came together and purchased a camera to record these meetings. The recordings presented are now available for the public to request their own copy or watch over the Internet. This is the only avenue available because the Township Committee continues not to broadcast the recordings even though there is no cost to the Township in doing so.

Letter: Televised meetings shouldn’t be complicated

The letter below was written by Mr. Don Watson and appears online and in print in  last weeks edition of the Independent.

I had been waiting to post this letter until I was able to post the video of the May 7, 2012 meeting of the Middletown Township Committee which is located in the previous post, so that readers could relate to the video and what is written in the letter more coherently. 

Until this past February, Mr Watson had been writing the "It's Your Town" e-newsletter, which chronicled the happenings at Middletown Township Committee meetings and was sent to over 500 resident email boxes and posted on this blog.

Now however, instead of writing the newsletter, he has been video taping these meetings and posting them online for residents to watch, seeing how the Township Committee has came up with every excuse in the book over the past few years, not to record them themselves and post the recordings online at the Township's website or broadcast them over the township's municipal public access cable channels.

A recent article discussed that televising the Middletown Township Committee meetings (“Televising meetings becomes partisan issue in Mid’town,” April 26) has come to be a political issue this election year; however, it was the Township Committee members that first politicized this otherwise nonpartisan issue. Making government business available to the public should not be a political issue, but a right citizens have to see their elected representatives debate and decide on issues that directly impact their quality of life.

Over the last few years, many residents from across Middletown have appeared before the committee to request that its meetings be televised on the township-controlled cable access channels. Yet each time a request was made, the committee came up with a different reason why the township could not — or rather, would not — provide this service to its residents: it was too expensive, they would need to hire a videographer or people would use it to grandstand.

As residents kept asking for televised meetings, I began producing an e-newsletter consisting of an objective, play-by-play review of the discussions during Township Committee meetings as a way to inform residents. It was more detailed than the minutes produced by the township and was well received by the over 500 or so residents that signed up to receive it monthly. When it became clear that the committee members would not move to televise their meetings, I decided to shift my effort from the newsletter to video recording. I received overwhelming support in the form of donations from all parts of town to purchase video recording equipment and, in February, I began video recording committee meetings and posting the full, unedited segments on Internet Archive. The videos have enough hits, showing that there is public interest in our local government at work.

I offer a DVD of each meeting to the committee to be replayed on public access channels, but the committee came up with more excuses: first, they questioned the completeness of the video and, now, they state if they accept my video, they would need to accept any video produced by any resident. They are making this more complicated than it is. Sunshine laws were enacted to ensure transparency in government. Making video recordings of meetings available on public access cable takes that intent one step further to truly open meetings to all residents, not just those who have the means to make it to meetings in person. Despite the committee’s attempts to turn this into a political issue, partisanship has no place here. I make the meeting videos available to whoever wants to see them. For now, that will have to be on the web until further notice.

As stated in the letter, you can watch Mr. Watson give a copy of his video recordings to the Township Committee at the 61 minute mark of the May 7, 2012 recording previously posted. It is taken courteously from him with no intention whatsoever of  being watched, posted online or broadcasted by the Township Committee for others to watch, which is a shame.

 I can't make it to Township Committee meetings as often as I would like so I find these recordings very informative and enlightening. I think others would also if given broader access to them.

Letter - Grenafege & Fowler Support Open Government and the Broadcasting Public Meetings

To the Editor,

Late one weekend night I was flipping t.v. channels to view my new expanded line-up, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a lively meeting of the Howell township committee. Enthralled, I watched for over 45 minutes. Howell's public service channel carries videotaped committee, planning and zoning meetings, repeated often and available for download.

My own township officials in Middletown adamantly refuse to offer videotaped meetings, which would be helpful for all, especially older people, workers, and people with disabilities. Are the officials fearful that they could not compete with :"Dancing with the Stars"? Committeeman Scharfenberger said that it would cost $100,000 to tape meetings, a gross exaggeration, then asserted that even at no cost he would not approve.

Candidates Jim Grenafege and Carol Fowler support open government, including videotaped meetings. It's time for a change in township committee members.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Schwebel
Leonardo, NJ

Middletown to put proposed resolutions online

From yesterdays Asbury Park Press - comment to follow:

Residents soon may be able to read the details of proposed resolutions and ordinances before attending Township Committee meetings. But once a meeting begins, a new ordinance will regulate how they can record the proceedings.

Officials plan to speak with at least one volunteer who has said he is willing to scan copies of the proposed resolutions and ordinances onto Middletown's Web site the Friday before a Township Committee meeting, said Anthony Mercantante, the township's administrator.

During its meeting on Monday, the Township Committee voted unanimously to institute the new online policy.

For months, Committeemen Sean Byrnes and Patrick Short advocated for the information to be posted on the Web site, saying it would allow residents to be better informed before attending meetings. Currently, only a one-sentence description of each proposed resolution or ordinance is posted on the site.

But Township Clerk Heidi Abs repeatedly said her office was already overwhelmed with work and could not find the time to do the scanning without additional manpower.

Bernard Reilly, Middletown's former township attorney, had also said there could be legal issues in posting information that could be withdrawn or amended before the start of a meeting.

During a committee meeting earlier this month, Mercantante suggested hiring a part-time employee to do the scanning. But Short said it made more sense to find a volunteer to do the work.

"We're talking about someone scanning documents for a couple of hours twice a month," Short said on Tuesday.

Mercantante hopes someone will be trained and able to do the scanning in time for the April 6 Township Committee meeting.

Also on Monday, Middletown Township Committee voted 3-2 to approve an ordinance that prohibits residents from using video devices — including cell phones — to record the meeting from the room's front half when there are more than 30 people in the room.

Township Committeeman Anthony Fiore — who voted to approve the ordinance along with Mayor Pamela Brightbill and Deputy Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger — said its objective is to prevent video equipment from getting in the way of people who wish to see what is going on.

"I don't think any of us object to anybody videotaping the meetings," Fiore said.

Byrnes said he does not understand how someone using a handheld camera while sitting on one of the room's benches could pose an obstruction to someone else.

After Scharfenberger said he had received several complaints, Short asked him to enumerate them. Scharfenberger did not answer.

"We just put something in law just speculating that there will be a problem," said Short, who noted that the only person he had ever seen recording meetings was Patricia Walsh, a Middletown Board of Education member who unsuccessfully ran against Brightbill and Fiore in 2008.

During the meeting, Walsh commended Township Committee for approving the new online policy but criticized members for the video recording ordinance.

"If I were grading you on open and transparent government, I'd give you an F," Walsh said.

 I assume that the resolutions are typed on the computer. why can't they just be copied and pasted to the Web site instead of printed and scanned back in by a volunteer? 

As for the video taping or recording of meetings, the ordinance that past on a strictly party line vote is an obvious attempt at trying to stop people from their rights to information. It is interesting that when pressed by Patrick Short, Deputy Mayor Scharfenberger could not or would not name one resident that complained about being distracted from the proceedings due to  Pat Walsh videoing them. It is a clear sign of partisen politics at its worst.