Public's right to know is really the only issue

Laconia Daily Sun          August 28^th, 2008

Letter to the Editor

This letter is in response to the topic of videotaping the Inter-Lakes School Board meetings, most recently addressed at the school board meet­ing of August 26 and the Laconia Daily Sun article dated August 27. A simple issue of videotaping the public sessions of school board meetings has turned complicated, now resulting in a proposed public vote on a warrant article in February. What has hap­pened here? The reason the issue has dragged on for months is the board's ability to find fault with every sugges­tion that is put forth—be it cost, tech­nology, audio quality, inconvenience, unknown viewership, or any number of reasons.

Technology is not the issue. Lack of Cable in Sandwich is not the issue. Finding a videographer is not the issue. Finding the right room at the Community Center is not the issue. Microphones are not the issue. The Public's right to know is the issue.

Video is no different than other media outlets (printed minutes, arti­cles in local papers). Capturing a video of the meetings is easy. Ask any parent who brings their camera to a school play or band concert. Quality of the video is not the main concern. This is not Hollywood, The ability to capture information for later viewing is the important point. Cost of distribution via cable TV is being cited as a road­block. Distribution of the video could be done in a variety of free or inexpen­sive ways. Free internet video services are available through YouTube. DVDs can be made inexpensively and given to each town office and town library.

The main issue is many parents simply cannot attend the meetings due to busy family schedules, or travel expenses from Sandwich. Meeting minutes, while factual, do not capture the spirit of the meeting nor the full content of discussion. As for viewer-ship, even if one person who could not attend the meeting could view the video, we have one more informed  citizen. Isn’t information sharing what it’s all about? Why is the school board resisting this concept?

I commend some of the board mem­bers for suggesting to do a mock video session at the Community Center. Unfortunately this was shot down without further discussion.

Video in general is not the issue — Meredith videos all selectmen meetings — a public forum that deserves public access is the issue. The school board should welcome video as another out­reach to citizens who are highly inter­ested in education and the school board topics, but simply cannot attend meet­ings. If selectmen meetings are made available to those that cannot attend, why shouldn't the school board meet­ings be made available?

Videotaping school board meetings is not a radical concept. The Town of Pelham does an outstanding job video­taping and distributing al public town meetings via their web site www.pel-hamweb.com. They have archived every meeting since 2006 using volunteer staff and readily available equipment.

The Town of Pelham is exercising its rights under N.H. RSA Chapter 91-A. the NH "Right-to-Know" Law, under the topic: "'What rights do individuals and the media have?", which states, "Any person may record, film or vid­eotape a public meeting so long as it is done in a manner that does not disrupt the meeting."

One reason for this letter stems from the school board meeting format in which the public input sessions are at fixed points in the meeting struc­ture. It is impossible for the public to revisit a topic that is discussed after the public input sessions. After the Board unanimously voted to put the video question before the voters in a warrant article, there was no way for me to speak out because there were no more public input sessions on the schedule. The meeting format has been confusing to a number of resi­dents, and perhaps deserves attention at a later date.

Lisa Merrill

Meredith

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