Board says it was cut out on super’s decision to broadcast meetings
Members of the Bethlehem Town Board are crying foul over Supervisor Sam Messina’s decision to enter into a contract to provide Internet broadcast of Town Board meetings without consulting them.
Messina signed a contract and purchase order Friday, May 21, with Ronkonkoma-based company IQM2 to provide Internet broadcast and archiving of Town Board meetings. The contract is for $410 per month, and a startup cost of $12,000 for equipment and training was also authorized.
The money would come from a $20,000 fund under the supervisor’s budget for other contractual services, which Messina said was allocated for interns and communications work but would better serve the community this way.
`I moved forward with implementing a very cost-effective system that does what I’ve said I’d do for over a year now,` Messina said. `This is good open government. It’s what I said I would do, and I’ve done it.`
Other members of the Town Board said they were not aware of the initiative until Messina announced it in a press release, and they questioned Messina’s authority to go forward with the contract.
`It puts the town in a particularly interesting place when a contract for something that normally has to be approved by the board is approved by one person,` Councilman Mark Hennessey said. `Unilateral action like this is beyond what I think is legal.`
`It’s $18,000, which is taxpayer money, and without getting board approval for this action and without it being approved in the budget, it’s an illegal act,` said Councilman Mark Jordan. `As a taxpayer, I’m offended by this.`
Town Attorney James Potter said department heads are authorized to expend budgeted funds when they see fit without going to the board for approval, but they must buy what was budgeted for.
`To the extent it was in the supervisor’s budget, then arguably it was authorized by the Town Board. However, the issue is what item was authorized,` he said.
The issue of broadcasting meetings via the Internet was brought up during the 2010 budgeting process, but was dropped due to cost and security concerns.
`There was an around-the-table decision not to go forward with it at that time,` Hennessey said. `We don’t have slush funds in town. … This is ‘spend as I say, and do what I want.’`
Messina maintains the use fits under the line item.
The town made the purchase under state contract, he continued, nullifying the need for a competitive bidding process. Staff still looked at three different companies.
`Their cost was competitive, the service they supplied was broader and the community satisfaction with the service was right on,` Messina said of IQM2.
Legalities aside, Messina’s four colleagues all objected to not being a part of the process.
Councilwoman Joann Dawson said she couldn’t comment on the system itself because she doesn’t know anything about it.
`There wasn’t even a single e-mail from Sam that he was thinking of this,` she said. `I’m in the dark; it’s not a good place to be.`
Councilman Kyle Kotary accused Messina of `operating in the shadows.`
`Once again, Supervisor Messina thinks it appropriate to do town policy behind closed doors and by press release, announcing such a major decision not only without the necessary public discussions, Town Board input or approvals, but without even telling Town Board members about this or sharing his press release with town officials,` he said.
Messina said he invited Hennessey to a meeting where there was a live demonstration of the system for town staff. Hennessey couldn’t make the meeting due to a work conflict.
`I did try to reach out to him because he is a person who in the past has made comments abut the expense of this sort of system,` Messina said.
The system would not only allow residents to view live streams of meetings, but access an archive of video indexed by agenda item.
`It gives us the ability to not just have PC access to live and archived board meetings, but it gives people a great opportunity to move into the areas they have an interest in,` Messina said.
He estimated the system would be up and running in six to eight weeks.
Messina said he wouldn’t place the item on the coming meeting’s agenda, but board members seemed eager to raise it in public.
`[Messina’s] form of communication with us lately seems to be in the form of press releases,` Councilman Mark Jordan said. `We weren’t elected just to sit in a seat at a Town Board meeting every two weeks.`
In related news, Messina has called a meeting to discuss a process to provide the public with more information on agenda items prior to Town Board meetings.
Hennessey in April touched off renewed discussion of meeting transparency when he personally published on the Internet the attachments provided to board members for an upcoming Town Board meeting. Messina expressed reservations about the release, saying a wholesale release of documents raised legal issues.
Hennessey will attend the upcoming closed-door meeting, along with town officials including the town attorney and Human Resources director.
`We’re going to sit down and hammer out what our process and approach should be,` Messina said. `In a month or so we’ll be getting those things out there and be comfortable with it.`
But Hennessey said the board would bring forward its own proposal that’s largely based on the state’s Freedom of Information Law.
`I would suspect by this time next week you’ll see a draft policy that not only we’ll come up with, but we’ll provide the public with so they can have comment on it before we make it into a policy,` he said.“