Another appeal to Lancaster Town Board to live stream its meetings

[Lee Chowaniec]

December 26, 2021
Lancaster Town Board
RE: Live streaming Town Board meetings

Town Board Members:

On September 15, 2021, I submitted a correspondence petitioning the Lancaster Town Board to consider live streaming Town Board meetings.

At that that time I watched a YouTube live streaming presentation of a Village of Depew board meeting held Monday, September 13, 2021.

The video was clear, the sound was excellent. A far superior broadcast video than the meeting audio recording provided by the town on its website.

On October 27th, I submitted another correspondence requesting a progress report on the live streaming project after hearing Supervisor Ruffino indicated some interest in investigating the project. I have heard nothing from the town or read anything that suggests such avenue is being pursued.

I am again requesting Lancaster consider providing its residents like service. YouTube is providing this service for numerous government entities and private organizations as well.

Despite Supervisor Ruffino’s pre-meeting directive to board members and meeting attendees to use the provided microphones and to speak into them, especially now where masks are required again, there is board member and attendee failure to do so.

The December 20, 2021, town board meeting was once again often unintelligible - disappointingly by board members on important resolution comments and votes. This is a continuing disregard for the public to acquire factual information and insight as to what is taking place in their town.

This is a disservice to those unable to attend meetings for health and myriad other reason – and especially now during the pandemic and the wearing of masks. If Depew and other municipalities can live stream their meetings, why not Lancaster?

Openness and transparency would be better served! The residents of Lancaster are deserving of the opportunity to know what’s taking place in their town.

Lee Chowaniec
Lancaster, NY

[mark blazejewski]

December 26, 2021
Lancaster Town Board
RE: Live streaming Town Board meetings...

...I am again requesting Lancaster consider providing its residents like service. YouTube is providing this service for numerous government entities and private organizations as well.

Many of our local churches have such live streaming.

The government proceedings of smaller communities are live-streamed.

Lancaster is a rising town, and is the desired destination of many WNY residents.

Lancaster's residents appear to be engaged, forward-looking stakeholders, who take seriously the functioning of their government and civic affairs.

I believe Mr. Chowaniec's request to be a necessary one, offered in the interests of transparency, good governance, and the public interest.

I fully support his petition without hesitation or contradiction.

[WNYresident]

Lancaster is a rising town, and is the desired destination of many WNY residents.

Just curious. I wonder if other towns keep statistics on how many people watch their live streams. IE: Cheektowaga, Amherst or who ever.

Maybe we will learn that not as many take seriously the functioning of their government and civic affairs.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Just curious. I wonder if other towns keep statistics on how many people watch their live streams. IE: Cheektowaga, Amherst or who ever.

Maybe we will learn that not as many take seriously the functioning of their government and civic affairs.

First off, I don’t care about live-streaming traffic in other towns – and there are many towns and villages that do live stream their meetings since the advent of Covid.

The Villages of Depew and Lancaster live stream their meetings and the Town of Lancaster does not. Seriously?

In the last 6 Town Board meetings the recording traffic on the website varied from 18 listeners to 156 – relative to agenda interest. There would be more but recording clarity discourages individuals from listening.

More importantly, I would hope the streaming would include video. In the 20 years of religiously attending town board meetings, I always found speaker facial and body expressions to be as important as speaker comments. The cost of providing such service is not prohibitive.

Lastly, and most important, IMHO, is that ‘civic-minded’ individuals unable to attend the meetings would have an opportunity to view the meetings and provide written comment.

In today’s world of technology and Covid restrictions, it would follow the precepts of the Open Meetings Law.

Information is power! The town taxpayers have a right to access that information to determine how their town is being managed.

[mark blazejewski]

In today’s world of technology and Covid restrictions, it would follow the precepts of the Open Meetings Law.

Information is power! The town taxpayers have a right to access that information to determine how their town is being managed.

Residing in your comment Lee is a brilliant point.

Covid has enabled a perceptibly all-powerful executive administration of government; a condition which perhaps exceeds anything ever experienced in America.

For the engaged and concerned to gather information on social media would be to dangerously rely on unvetted, raw information, but the big tech lackeys surely mitigate that danger.

However, even more troubling, those very same big tech actors are responsible for a welcoming policy regarding Statist propaganda; an equally dangerous dissemination.

Furthermore, for concerned voices to rely on the objectivity of the sycophantic, Leftist news media to fairly present a side critical of the Statist powerholders, more often than not is an illusory fairytale.

Live streaming would afford uncensored, the public the opportunity to see, hear, and fully assess, the conduct of those otherwise insulated power holders.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Mark B. wrote: Live streaming would afford uncensored, the public the opportunity to see, hear, and fully assess, the conduct of those otherwise insulated power holders.

A saliant point and a reason for the thread. A new town board will be in place, one under Republican-Conservative Party control for only the second time in the past 70 years. Re-elected board member Dickman and Burkard – neither endorsed by the Republican Party but winning the primary election and filling the Republican ballot line in the election. There will be heavy scrutiny.

Like all politicos campaigning for election, transparency and openness were promised. Transparency and openness were absent this year because two board members either refused to position the microphones in front of them, did not sit close enough to the microphone to be heard clearly, or spoke in low voice to obscure their comments. And the town’s sound system does not provide clarity or volume adjustment to enhance speakers not properly using the microphones.

The board members promise the public transparency and openness, they deserve a system that allows them to he heard intelligibly by the public without concern of their being misunderstood. The mandated wearing of masks supports installing a system that provides best sound and optics.

Hearing and seeing directly is believing – not through the lens of a media that is so mistrusted today.

[gorja]

I don't think live streaming should be limited to the town board meeting.
The planning board, zoning board, IDA meetings and any others should be live streamed as well.

[mark blazejewski]

A new town board will be in place, one under Republican-Conservative Party control for only the second time in the past 70 years. Re-elected board member Dickman and Burkard – neither endorsed by the Republican Party but winning the primary election and filling the Republican ballot line in the election. There will be heavy scrutiny.

Well said Lee.

Just My Opinion:

I have every confident expectation that Messrs Dickman and Burkard will follow the outstanding example set by Councilman Leary, and will remain loyal to all of their campaign pledges.

However, both need to be aware that as Supervisor, Ruffino still holds a high card, as he remains the elected leader of the town. With that distinction, he retains certain executive privileges and most significantly, the "bully pulpit" advantages of his office; an intangible, but potent weapon in his political arsenal.

The Democrats have more or less held majority power for seventy years, and they surely are not going to willingly submit to the will of the governing majority just because of one election.

In that regard, the new majority needs to understand that Ruffino and company may, and most probably will, resort to trickery, and appeal to temptation, in order to divide and factionalize the new majority; a Machivellian approach which may very well be applied in their efforts to restore themselves to the power that they view as their metaphorical birthright.