FORT PIERCE — Resident Linda Salisbury fought for years to get city hall to begin televising public meetings so she could watch her elected officials in action from the comfort of her home.

In July 2006, Salisbury got her wish.

But with the city facing a $3.6 million deficit in the budget next year, Mayor Bob Benton said he’s going to suggest at an Aug. 4 budget workshop that the city do away with televising live meetings to cut costs.

The city budgets $150,000 to televise meetings and bills the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency and Fort Pierce Utilities Authority a portion for meetings, Finance Director Gloria Johnson said.

A few years ago, the city spent about $300,000 to upgrade its commission chambers and to cover the cost to begin televising meetings.

“Many citizens get their knowledge of what city government is doing by watching the televised meetings,” Salisbury said.

The proposal doesn’t sit well with Steve Weaver, a member of the city’s Planning Board who said he watches many city meetings on television.

“I think it’s one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard, and I think it goes against the whole concept of government-in-the-sunshine and the transparency this administration has promised us,” he said.

Benton said not only would his idea save money, it would prevent people from grandstanding in front of the cameras, including politicians up for re-election.

He said meetings, which can last five hours, could be shortened if people would stop playing up to the cameras.

“It’s not something by law government is required to do,” Benton said. “It’s definitely a luxury and a convenience. Up until recently, most municipalities didn’t televise their meetings. It’s only been done in the last five to 10 years. I’m not saying we should (stop televising). I’m saying we could do it.”

Benton also pointed to incidents where city commissioners and staff have gotten into heated arguments, including an incident at a July 20 city commission meeting where city manager David Recor got into a heated argument with city commissioner Rufus Alexander.

“People shouldn’t see that,” Benton said. “Sometimes these televised meetings can offer Fort Pierce’s own version of reality television. All I know is ($150,000) is a lot of money. It could mean city jobs, hiring police officers and public works employees.”

Benton said if two commissioners agree to the idea, the city would stop televising the meetings starting Oct. 1. The city would still keep its television station, FPTV, on Comcast channel 27 and continue to broadcast community events and informational segments, he said.

An option if commissioners don’t agree to do away with televised meetings, he said, is to find out if it would be cheaper to record the meetings and then televise them, rather than televise them live.

Salisbury and other proponents of televised meetings say the cost savings is minor compared with the benefit of keeping government officials responsive and accountable to the voters.

“It seems to me that eliminating televised meetings would be going back in time and stifling the public’s right to know what the city is proposing,” Salisbury said. “To cut the costs of government, look to the high cost area such as expensive benefit programs.”
Alexi Howk, TCPalm.com

Tags: budget, camera, commissioners, communication, cuts, jobs, mayor, televised, television

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 9:11 am and is filed under Fort Pierce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.