What you see is what you get

I wanted to expand on my comments during the Select Board’s recent discussion about getting more town boards and committees onto local cable television and the town’s YouTube account.

The Item had a story on the meeting on the front page of today’s paper.

When I joined the Cable Committee in 2017, one of my first goals was to get as much local government on television as possible. The Select Board and School Committee are fortunate in that all of our meetings are broadcast live on CCTV (and, once we expanded to web broadcasting, also YouTube). Archives of our meetings can also now be found online, for people who can’t watch live.

But, back then, most other town boards didn’t have that option. We didn’t have the personnel or equipment to cover so many meeting spaces, and some people didn’t see the need.

In 2019, when Ed Devault joined the Cable Committee and I took over as chair, we hired a full-time station director and started work on filling out programming. We both agreed that broadcasting more meetings wouldn’t just give us more content, but it would help you better see all the good work the rest of local government does. We really saw it as a win-win, both for our rebooted cable channel and the community at large.

So I have to say I was disappointed to learn that the Council on Aging voted unanimously last month to keep their meetings off the air. I guess I can understand how some people who aren’t accustomed to a spotlight might feel uncomfortable in it. And I understand that the majority of people who work in town government don’t do it to get famous or to draw attention to themselves.

As an independent board, it was a unanimous decision by the COA board to not video meetings for Community Television. The overall feeling is that the public is well aware of the activities and programming provided by the COA and the logistics of videotaping could impact scheduled activities at the center and would be redundant for people who would be interested in the schedule and activities of the COA.

Council on Aging Chair James LeBlanc, in an September 22 email to Select Board Chair Matt Kobus

What I don’t understand is how anyone in pubic service can claim that we’re doing enough to get the word out about what is happening in town, the decisions we debate and make each meeting, or how your tax dollars are being spent.

We don’t have a daily newspaper. Our weekly newspaper was just spared from near death, but is still understaffed and under-resourced. (Here’s hoping this week’s announcement soon changes that.) And yet local government is more complicated and important than ever. To hide anything we do from the biggest possible audience is a disservice to democracy and our duty as public servants.

Forget about relying on the “‘number of avenues that communications are put out,’ such as [the Council on Aging’s] newsletter, emails and Facebook page.” These are all well produced and well read, I’m sure.

Still, it’s not enough. We need to find more ways to connect with you and and the community at large. We need to show that transparency and accountability aren’t just words some people throw around at election time. They have to mean something.

You deserve nothing less.

We’ll keep working with the COA and other boards to show them the value that broadcasting meetings can bring to their mission and to our community. In the meantime, you’re welcome to wander in to the Council on Aging meetings, as COA Chair James LeBlanc offered when he met with us. (But don’t take my word for it. Thanks to our meetings being broadcast, you can click here and see for yourself.)

Or better yet, as Mr. LeBlanc suggested, contact the Council on Aging at 978-733-4747 or coa@clintonma.gov and tell them how you feel about seeing their meetings on CCTV and YouTube. If they don’t listen to us, maybe they’ll listen to you.