A Really New Idea in Open Government
I posted yesterday about the town of Barnstable providing videos of meetings of its board and committees online so the public can watch them at their leisure. I used to live near Alexandria, Virginia, one of my favorite places on earth. It does Barnstable one better in regard to its City Council and Planning Board meetings. Not only can you download or watch videos of meetings from the city’s website, you also can jump ahead in the video to items in the meeting docket (agenda). I read about this kind of software a while ago, but had not seen it in action until I checked out the City of Alexandria’s website. (According to the website for Granicus, Inc, it provides "meeting solutions" to Alexandria, VA, so presumably the downloadable videos are utilizing Granicus's software.) I am not aware of any community in Massachusetts using this technology and there are none listed on the Granicus website. (Isn't Massachusetts supposed to be a center of technological development? Shouldn't we be users too?)
Labels: granicus, Massachusetts, Open Government, Open Meeting Law, technology
posted by KJS at 12:59 PM
2 Comments:
Hi, I'm a new member of my town's Finance Committee. I was disappointed to find out that we couldn't discuss anything over email even if it was a public mailing lists.
Public mailing lists nowadays have a full detailed searchable (via Google or whatever) history as well as sortable conversation threads.
I work extensively in the open source software movement. In my experience, a public mail list actually improves transparency and encourages public participation. Its also way more efficient.
a) Do you know of any rulings/guidelines around the open meeting law and public email lists?
b) Are you against this sort of thing?
Hi Bill,
For some reason I never received notice of your comment and just now noticed it. Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. If I understand your question, the AG's guidelines on the Open Meeting law (http://www.mass.gov/Cago/docs/Government/openmtgguide.pdf) addresses the issue somewhat on pages 17-18. Are the "public email lists" you are referring to are like listservers that some towns and cities use to send out notices to members of the public who sign up to receive them? I think those are a good idea. However, email conversations between members of a board or committee subject to the open meeting law, have been found to be a violation of the Open Meeting Law. I don't think the fact that they are made public changes that result. For example, the Open Meeting Law requires notice of a meetings at least 48 hours in advance so that members of the public can attend, if they want to, in real time. I still think that is a necessary requirement of the Open Meeting Law. That is not to say that the law needs to be amended to take into consideration new technology. I just would not want to throw out features that are useful.
Post a Comment
<< Home