The 2009 political campaign moved into the Bethlehem Town Hall last night after a motion calling for an open government task force was shot down, causing a lengthy debate that pit one councilman against the rest of the board.
Councilman Sam Messina, who is running against Supervisor Jack Cunningham for the top seat, went head to head with the rest of the board on a number of issues after his motion to increase citizen access to information and improve agenda dissemination did not receive a second motion.
Without a second, no vote could be taken and the motion was not carried.
The other four members of the board said they agreed with certain aspects of Messina’s proposals but cited various reasons why they could not support the measure including finances, logistics, other priorities and having already looked into the suggestions in the past.
Cunningham said he wanted to make clear he was `all for community participation,` but said many of the proposals were not financially feasible during a time of economic crisis.
Messina made his motion during the `other business` portion of the meeting.
`I’m going to make a motion to appoint a study group to look at opportunities to increase public access and participation in Bethlehem government,` he said.
In addition to the resolution for a study group picked by the board, Messina proposed conducting a handful of Town Board meetings in different parts of town; Web-casting the meetings live on the Internet; providing more information on the agenda; and providing the public with electronic access to attachments to agenda items available to board members.
`The point is that the goal of increased public attendance and participation at Town Board meetings and other activities of Bethlehem are so important that we ought to carefully weigh and then perhaps try some new approaches, even if they are non-traditional,` Messina wrote in a letter to his board colleagues.
The biggest issue other board members had was money, but the ultimate philosophical argument was over how the public perceives the openness of Town Hall and where does it land in the laundry list of priorities.
`I’m reluctant to start adding costs to meetings,` Cunningham said about holding meetings in various hamlets around town. `As far as Web-casting is concerned, that’s kind of a cool idea.`
Cunningham said the board has sought out Web-casting capabilities in the past, but with a quoted $60,000 price tag, he said the board needed to show some `fiscal restraint.`
Councilman Kyle Kotary, who is also running for re-election this year, said he personally has looked into Web-casting, too, and the town can’t afford it.
`I pushed several points, including why can’t we just take [public access] Channel 18 and put it on Utube, I mean I can do that,` said Kotary. `But there were logistical reasons why we couldn’t do it.`
Kotary said after some research and talking to vendors he heard quotes in the $80,000 to $100,000 range.
Messina said he did not know where the $60,000 quote came from and heard it was more in the neighborhood of $12,000. Councilman Mark Hennessey said he remembers hearing of a $20,000 start up cost and then a $1,000 a month continuation fee but that there was a question mark over the cost of archiving the Web-cast.
`The video casting at first sounded like a really good idea,` said Hennessey. `We made a decision as a board together to take that out, thereby saving the taxpayers’ money. I truly believe a better informed citizenry wants a government that’s open but not inside out.`
Councilwoman Joann Dawson said residents are generally pleased with town government.
`Not only are our town citizens generally content with the way we’re running the town, or they would be here to let us know, but I also think people have a lot of things on their plate right now,` she said. `With all the things going on right now I don’t think they would consider this worthy of a study group.`
Messina responded by saying he is trying make participation as easy as possible.
`The public has a lot on their plate,` he responded. `I’m trying to make it easier for people to get information while they still have a lot on their plate.`
South Bethlehem resident Linda Jasinski said she was disappointed with the board.
`I’d like to express my disappointment to the town board for not even bringing up to vote Sam’s proposal,` said Jasinski. `You could have at least done that. It just shows when someone is not lock and step with you, you can shut them out.`
Cunningham disagreed with her assessment.
`Sam was not shut out,` Cunningham told Jasinski. `I strongly disagree that we dismissed his item just because we didn’t motion it forward. I think everyone on this board gave very careful consideration and expressed their views on why they were not supporting it.`
Concluding he said, `A ‘no motion’ is almost the same as a ‘no vote,’ they’re very similar.`
For updates on this story, return to www.spotlightnews.com, or read the Wednesday, July 15, edition of The Spotlight.
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