March 28, 2024

Citizen participation, transparency demands archived video of city council meetings

To the editor:

Yippee ki-yay, the Newton city council is once again becoming more visible to the public, but in a very low scale way.

While many can applaud the return of televised council meetings to Mediacom, as well as the new live streaming of the council meetings online on the city’s website, those that are not available for the set meeting time still have gained no access to the public meetings.

Why can’t our city take yet another step forward by recording the council meetings and making them available for viewing online at any time of day or night?

If our city leaders truly want citizen participation and full transparency, the idea of making the videos available online to anyone to access at their own convenience would be a much welcomed change that is long overdue.

Todd Hackathorn

Newton