Right-to-Know: September 2008 Archives

Note from the MCA: A citizen asked Mr. Terenzini if the town of Amherst, a town used as a model for the Moultonboro public access policy has a public access commission or it it was administered under the Twon Administrator. He replied that Amherst has a commission.

MCA

The Citizen  September 19th, 2008

Note from the MCA: We applaud this independent effort to place these important videos on the web. The MCA has been videotaping many public meetings in Moultonboro and began placed them on this website to an excellent public response.

MCA

The Meredith News September 18^th, 2008

SARAH SCHMIDT

SSCHMIDT@SALMONPRESS.COM

MEREDITH — Whether or not voters approve funds for broadcasting their meetings on television, the Inter- Lakes School Board meetings are being taped and slated for broadcast via the Internet. Lisa and Steve Merrill, parents who attend meetings, brought videotaping equipment to the last school board meeting, Lisa Merrill working the equipment. Steve Merrill wrote a letter to the board earlier this year calling for them to begin broadcasting their meetings on the Lakes Region Public Access channel. The board has been wrestling with the question for a few months, given the fact that district residents in Sandwich and parts of Center Harbor have no access to cable. The board recently voted to bring the question to the Inter-Lakes School District Meeting in March. “This is somewhat of a first,” said Chair Jack Carty, beginning the meeting. “We’re being taped. It’s the right of anyone to tape public meetings.” Lisa Merrill said that she was taping the meetings with the intention of broadcasting them in sections on the YouTube.com Web site. Merrill said she will be linking the clips on YouTube to a new Web log (blog) of her own to allow parents to communicate on concerns about the school district. Merrill said that the equipment she used to tape the meetings was on loan, and another person was helping her work on the tape to ready it for YouTube. Afterwards, Merrill said she wants to bring the DVDs of the meetings to a local library in the district. “In the interim (between now and March), this is to let people know,” said Merrill. “There are a lot of concerns, and this way,we can get frustrations out and connect on the blog. People can connect on issues they see - basically, anything you’d like to write about.” Merrill said putting these clips of the meeting on YouTube and linking to it from the blog will show that “this stuff can be done for very little money,” and can reach anyone in the district with the ability to access a computer with an Internet connection. The work is still in progress, though, and Merrill said that she was still working on getting the clips online, and hoped to have them up soon. The clips will likely be of “hot topics,” she said, such as the recent debate about dress code. The board continued its own work on effective mediums of broadcasting their meetings in different forms. They watched about five minutes of a Meredith Board of Selectmen workshop that had been broadcast earlier this summer, in order to get a sense of the facilities available at the Meredith Community Center, and to see it met with their standards for audibility and visibility. Earlier in the year, the board listened to a presentation from District Technology Director Allan Hale, on the possibility of taping the meetings to air via media streaming server, straight to the computers of anyone with an Internet connection. The difference in putting the video on the Web instead of handing a tape to the LRPC, Hale explained, was in finding a host company to supply them with a media streaming server and bandwidth. The school would create the video and send it to the host company,who would provide a link on the school district Web site with direct access to the video, a service that would cost a flat fee per

month, unless more than a set number of people tried to watch the video. Merrill’s blog is at www.interlakescitizens.blogspot.com.

 HOME

Why the opposition?

Editor, The Citizen September 15^th, 2008

 While we wait for full compliance of the Right to Know Law in seeing public meetings broadcast on cable's Public Access Channel the selectmen of Moultonborough have attempted to develop policy. In June the Moultonboro Citizens Alliance (MCA) started working with Time Warner Cable (TWC) to air the selectmen's meetings (as well as other public meetings) on the PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL as a public service. The selectmen had no policy regulating the Public Access Channel. The FCC offers a fact sheet that says public access channels are "usually administered by the cable operator or a third party designated by the franchising authority." Since there was no third party designee when we approached Time Warner Cable both they (TWC) and MCA assumed we were not violating the sanctity of the selectmen's authority. After all, THEY HAD NO POLICY IN PLACE AFTER MORE THAN TWO DECADES.

I will state here that MCA was willing to do this at no expense to the taxpaying public, where other towns are wrestling with a budget of $14,000 to $20,000 or more for this right. Unedited broadcast of public meetings at no expense to the taxpayer ... how sinister is that? Other broadcasts have been and continue to be aired without the accusations of abuse, misrepresentation and "lack of respect for the selectmen". And they are aired without any policy in place. But this bitter opposition towards the MCA is not new.

• The selectmen were quick to combat SB2, a voting initiative that allows ALL voters to vote on ALL town issues. They lobbied hard and duplicitously against this measure that allows voters who are out of town or otherwise unable to get to town meetings to have a say as to how their tax dollars are spent. "Anyone spending months in the winter away doesn't care what goes on in Moultonborough" was the statement from the chair. Why wouldn't they want all citizens to have a vote on the town warrant if the law is available to do that? Don't know.

• Why would they not want the average citizen to see the selectmen's meetings on TV in the comfort of their home? Don't know.

• When a citizen stands and asks to read a letter into the minutes of the meeting (because they won't) the comment coming from the chair was "If you must". Why? Don't know.

• Why would the selectmen say they were unwilling to support the building of a multimillion dollar recreation facility one day, and then 4 of the 5 flip flop to support it being on the warrant? Don't know.

• Why would a selectman accuse a citizen of spreading lies and misinformation in arguing against the multimillion dollar recreation center when he was using information directly from the Master Plan Survey? Don't know.

It has been the exercise of some selectmen to practice personal politics rather than objectively sticking with the issues that the town needs to address. Perhaps this is the reason they hesitate to allow these broadcasts to be aired.

MCA's goal of full compliance to the Right to Know Law leads to open and transparent government. We want all citizens to be able to vote on all issues (SB2). Another goal is to inform and educate the voter and property owner. We advocate sensible spending and community involvement. However, because we are not always in lock step with the selectmen, we are labelled as negative and purveyors of misinformation.

Until the selectmen allow the airing of the public meetings on the public access channel, they may be viewed on the MCA website, www.moultonborcitzensalliance.org .

Rick Heath

Moultonborough

HOME