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Monday, August 22, 2005

WATERCOOLER: Should the City of Evansville broadcast common council, planning commission, public works and finance committee meetings on Cable TV?

At a recent school board meeting, Supr. Heidi Garvin mentioned that the school district is attempting to get access from Charter Communications for a channel to broadcast events of interest.

As a sidenote, she mentioned that possibly the City of Evansville might also want access. Many cities across the country routinely broadcast their public meetings on cable.

Considering the limited seating capacity of the Evansville City Hall chamber, and the public interest involved, what do you think? Should the city of Evansville broadcast their meetings on cable?

What are your thoughts? You make the call.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:37 PM

    Yes, Yes, Yes... I think in the past the city alderman and planning commission have shoved a number of questionable items on through with out much to any discussion and it would be nice to have these things recorded. Not everyone can get to the meetings or knows that there is something that is on the agenda they should be concerned about until after it has been voted on. The Agenda is not always real clear as to what the actual issue is.

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  2. Anonymous2:37 PM

    I agree 100%. This can do them no harm.

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  3. Anonymous6:28 AM

    Mr.Connors what do you think? Any real harm with this?

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  4. Anonymous11:37 AM

    The city is in the process of negotiating a new cable franchise agreement with Charter Communications. I have requested that Charter provide equipment to the community for producing public access programming in Evansville. I have designated the Evansville Community School District and the Eager Free Public Library to be the recipients of that equipment. That is the source of the school district's statement about showing School Board meetings on cable TV.

    If the community receives this equipment and someone wants to tape Common Council meetings for cable TV, that would be a great thing. But we do not have sufficient city staff to devote to this service.

    Bill Connors
    Evansville City Administrator

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  5. Anonymous4:34 PM

    I know I was not impressed with one of the last planning commissions meetings I was at, where the ' new' agenda was introduced where they actually a part on the agenda where it said something like, vote on this _____ item, do not table to a different date. Those were not the exact words but the point being was, vote now tonight, don't put off. What is the hurry? Why not take some time and think about things.

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  6. The problem I have with the plan commisson meetings is the format.

    Public comment
    Commission member discussion
    Vote

    It seems unfair to me that the commission hears your public comments and then sometimes responds, sometimes doesn't in their discussion, then they vote. They have the opportunity to respond to your concerns if they choose to, however, after listening to their discussion, the public floor has already been closed and a citizen has no opportuntiy for a rebuttal to the commission members discussion.

    From what I understand from friends that live in other communities that these meetings are staged over several meetings and have more of a dialogue between the the citizens and the planning commission. I think a different format could develop more of a dialoge between the PC and citizens that attend.

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