Filming Town Meetings Is Fundamental to Informing Citizens

Belleville resident Frank Fleischman has submitted the following letter to the Nutley Watch regarding our recent proposal to the Belleville Town Council to officially adopt the recording, broadcasting, and archiving of all public meetings in Belleville on a new cable station devoted to governance, and promoting the township.

Thank you for the kind words, Mr. Fleischman.

Here is his letter:

At the Belleville Township Council meeting on April 28th, Belleville resident Jeff Mattingly brought up an issue critical to citizen participation and government transparency: the need for a local cable channel to broadcast public meetings and other town events.

The Town Council’s reaction to Mr. Mattingly’s comments was underwhelming, to say the least. Mayor Ray Kimble noted that the issue of filming Town Council meetings had been brought up in the past, and had been voted down by the Council. He offered to convene a committee of select council members to study the possibility. When Mr. Mattingly asked Mayor Kimble if any Belleville citizens would be appointed to the committee, the mayor said no, that it would be council members only.

First, the fact that recording and broadcasting town meetings remains an issue or a matter of debate is unbelievable. Belleville residents pay high taxes and not all residents can attend meetings, due to work or family responsibilities. Belleville residents need to know what is going on with their town and to know if, and how, those they voted into office are representing Belleville’s interests. Thanks to the work of Lee Dorry of NutleyWatch, residents who are unable to attend public meetings can at least watch recordings of these meetings. Mr. Dorry’s work is indeed valuable, but it shouldn’t be necessary for a private citizen to do what the town should have been doing for years now.

With the affordability of digital equipment, and sites like YouTube and Dailymotion, which allow free upload of videos, the recording of public meetings should not be an issue.

Secondly, if, for the sake of argument, a committee was needed to study this issue, it would be appropriate for at least one Belleville citizen to be appointed to the committee. Belleville residents want to be involved in their town, but many feel they’ve been shut out, that their voice doesn’t count. Appointing a citizen or citizens to an advisory committee would go a long way to restoring and strengthening the public’s faith in its leaders. One could make the argument that the residents had already spoken when they elected their leaders, but that’s outdated thinking. People want to know their voice and their ideas are taken seriously, and there is a wealth of untapped talent in our town – knowledgeable, informed residents who are looking for ways to make this already great town even better.

Finally, the fact that the Town Council hasn’t addressed what is truly a simple matter of citizen outreach and transparency inevitably raises a question in many people’s minds: “Why don’t they want the meetings recorded and broadcast?” With everything that has happened in the past two years with the Board of Education, does the Town Council really want the voters wondering about that?