CAMPAIGN - Televised Commissioner Meetings

     When Douglas County Commissioner Dan VanSlyke was elected in 2002, one of his campaign promises was to televise the weekly commissioner meetings on public access cable TV. VanSlyke fulfilled that promise.
     Several years later, discord at the county commissioner meetings prompted a majority of the commissioners to pull the plug on televised meetings. Citizens could still hear the meetings but not see who was speaking or what was going on.
     Commissioners at the time said they didn't have the money to pay someone to operate the television switching equipment. But critics said the cost was minimal and that the money excuse was only a smokescreen to discourage "grandstanding." Some had argued that because citizen speakers knew they were on television, some people acted up during the citizen participation portion of the meeting, more than they did when the meetings weren't televised.
     I'm sorry, but that argument just doesn't hold water. Countless city councils and boards of commissioners conduct televised meetings. There are rules and protocol that governing bodies can enforce, if a public speaker violates the rules or decorum. And if some speakers are upset about a subject and let their passion show through during a citizen participation session, so what? Perhaps the people watching at home need to be informed about the topic. At the very least, a little passion can sometimes break the monotony of an otherwise droll meeting.
     My supporting televised county commissioner meetings isn't because I want people at home to be able to see more "passion." Rather, it's for the purpose of improving accessibility and transparency of government meetings. Unlike some city councils, it's impractical to hold county commissioner meetings during the evening, when most working-class people could attend. The cost of paying county administrators and staff to attend a weekly meeting at night would be cost-prohibitive.
     It's far cheaper to pay a nominal fee to one person to operate television switching equipment once a week. AND, the meetings can be shown more than once! Not only were the county commissioner meetings previously shown live on Wednesday mornings, but a taped version was also shown Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons.
     If the county can afford to pay county commissioners to drive county-owned vehicles home from work every night, at taxpayer expense, then the county can afford to re-instate televised county commissioner meetings. The decision is long overdue.