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.