Should Taxpayer Dollars Go To Filming Meetings? (with poll)

All Bernie Pisacich wants is to retire from the job he gave himself.

Pisacich has been videotaping town meetings for five years, and then putting them on the public access channel. He has been pushing for the town to follow the Board of Education and invest in technology that would film the meetings automatically.

“As an advocate of this project, it is hoped that the net result will be more light and less spending,” said Pisacich at the last Representative Town Meeting meeting. “I really want to retire from this job.”

After years of putting it off, the Board of Selectmen finally agreed, putting $27,000 in the 2012-13 capital budget to put in an audio and video system in the Town Hall auditorium. The money still needs to be approved by the Board of Finance and the RTM.

The Full Story

Pisacich began filming town meetings five years ago. Some town officials tried to ban the filming, but the town attorney said it should be allowed, Pisacich said.

Town officials have to speak in microphones so both the video camera and the audience can pick up the sound, and there are not enough microphones for the people on the boards. If officials do not talk into a microphone, Pisacich tells them to, which

Pisacich wants an audio system that would amplify the discussions of town officials, so both the people in the audience can hear and the video camera can pick it up. Additionally, Pisacich is asking for monitors to be put in the auditorium so people can display documents for all to see, and a video recorder that would tape all meetings automatically.

The Board of Education late last year installed a similar system that tapes meetings automatically in the board of education meeting room in . The system cost $6,500, paid for with a grant from Metrocast and one of the district’s revenue funds, Superintendent Jerome Belair said.

The school district puts the meetings on its website and on Waterford’s public access channel. The town would do the same, First Selectman Dan Steward said.

Other Reasons

Steward voted for the $27,000 capital project during his budget reviews. But when interviewed last week, the first selectman wanted the system for different reasons.

Steward believed that the audio system is good because “all people in the audience should hear what is going on,” and the monitors are good because people can use it to display documents for the entire audience.

“(Audience members) should be able to hear and see what is going on,” Steward said. “So you need a decent amplification system and microphone.”

Steward did not think that putting the meetings on the town’s website will have much of an impact. Rarely does anybody from the public show up to any town meeting, and it is likely they won’t watch the meetings on the website either, Steward said.

 “I have no idea what the audience is,” he said. “I do know we have no public at our meetings on a regular basis, unless there is an issue they are all excited about. The minutes are available, the meetings are available if people want to come. People don’t come out. There is an apathy that exists in that world.”