Al Jordan, Northampton County's Director of Information Services, has a terrible weakness. He smokes. If he wants to light up, he has to step outside the courthouse. And when he does, I can nail him and find out what's going on.
He's working on a proposal to livestream county council meetings. He envisions a system in which we can see and hear what's going on in real time, and is even considering some interactive features that might make it possible for the public to make comments. He'd also like to be able to archive meetings. I'm telling you right now the Nielsens on this will go right through the cupola. If the county sells this as a series, it might avoid a tax increase for a few years.
You, too, might soon be able to watch the council circus. Of course, they must approve this plan. It certainly will put them in the public eye, where you can watch the most dysfunctional government in the Lehigh Valley.
Maybe I can get a job doing Angle's make up.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
▼
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
15 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
By now you may have received my e-mail commenting on the deal between Lafayette College and the City of Easton, Northampton County's governmental seat, to replace the city's paid professional workforce, protected by collective-bargaining rights, with "volunteer" Lafayette students called "ambassadors" (actually,indentured slaves)in Pennsylvania Governor Ed "Fast Eddie" Rendell's and the state legislature's Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ)"technology transfer program."
ReplyDeleteBilly, this has NOTHING to do w/ televising county council meetings for the Internet. Please have a little more respect.
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to see the meetings on the web.... that would be so awesome for residents who have trouble getting down to Easton for the live circus attractions.
ReplyDeleteEVERY Government body should do this. And if it can be streamed live, it certainly can be archived. Bravo!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I will bring it up at the next Luzerne County Commissioners meeting. No doubt it would go over well with the public, but I am not too sure how those crafty commissioners would feel about it. Of course, there is the matter of no money for anything... that could be a roadblock.
ReplyDeleteI always see more traffic the days I post videos. Our visually-oriented society would surely be more aware of what was going on in their government if they could watch from an easy chair.
This would be an amazing task to pull off, almost as good as regionalization efforts, govt & edu. All public meetings should be live and taped/stored.
ReplyDeleteA video would squash the attitude of a certain BASD Board President.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteFor awhile, a gentleman of Indian (the country) extraction was recording county council meetings for service Electric, and at least once an EASD directors meeting that I attended, when Riegelsville residents were there to protest the escalating taxes of EASD, of which that municipality, though located in Bucks County, is a member.
Also on the agenda that evening was the directors' consideration of a Junior ROTC, which as one might expect drew a sizeable gathering of concerned citizens, parents of EASD students in particular, and certainly was of interest to the general public.
I'm also aware that municipalties can extract (I didn't say extort!) televised coverage concessions from cable companies like Service Electric and RCN as quid pro quo to municipal rights-of-way for access to customers.
I am not aware, however, of any municipality in the area that has done that.
Perhaps you or other of your subscribers have?
I hope it happens, and soon. It's definitely good government.
ReplyDeleteand education... Bernie
ReplyDeleteBernie, Ol' Buddy
ReplyDeleteI'm still seeing signs that you're still with Google.
In fact, you admitted as much to the designer of my own blog, Billy Bytes (http://www.billybytes.com/blog/), a Brian, a nice yuppy from the North New Jersey-New York City (OM&B's MSA - Metropolitan Statistical Area - which now excludes Newark but includes LVEDC's, LVIP's, LVGCC's, LVIAA's, LVP's bogus "Lehigh Valley."
This new MSA, based on numbers from the year 2000 national census - the year U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anton Scalia overrode the decisions of both the Florida Supreme Court and Atlanta's 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decisions mandating a voter recount for the entire Orange Bowl state - home of Minute Maid Orange Juice spokesperson Anita Bryant and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the latter the sybolic 2000 staling horse presaging the stealth of Ohio's Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell who round-filed hundreds of thousnds of provisional ballots csst in the pivotal 2004 Ohio portion of the Presidential selection process.
This Blackwell did, not because POTUS told him to, or not even because the shit-canned provisional ballots were cast by Blacks and Hispanics and the other cast-offs of our society, but because those ballots were cast not on 80-weight paper but only 60-weight.
I have to go now. I'm picking up John Todaro at his and lovely petite wife Rosina's home in Palmer Township.
John's going with me to Belvidere, county seat of Warren County, and the courthouse's Surrogate Court, Courtroom One, for the custodial, POA, and guardianship possession of a New Jersey citizen now being held in a Bangor, Pennsylvania, "assisted-living" prison - under circumstances with all the hallmarks of the Anna Mae kessler miscarriage case, a case of which your personally are aware.
In conclusion, my candidacies for Easton Mayor and Northampton County Council District 2 that I first announced publicly on your "Lehigh Valley Ramblings" Blog I repeated this morning on Ron Angle's "At Issue" WGPA-AM 1100-on-the-radio dial talk/call-in radio show.
ciao
P.S.
ReplyDeleteBernie, I'm busier right now than a one-arm paperhanger with the hives preparing for this 1:00 p.m. hearing in Belvidere, but I just wanted to confess that I'm still with Google, too.
But that's only because I haven't had the time or opportunity to replace Google.
Also, I l've like Google, too, as do you, and it is the only search engine I have used, and I would like to stay with Google.
But if I do, it will have to stop doing business, or at least colluding with the Internet's censorship in the People's Republic of China.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteBelay my earlier e-mails re the court hearing in Belvidere. That hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, not today.
That means I'll have to keep my announced candidacies for Easton Mayor and County council District 2 in the press conference already scheduled for 12:00 noon in Easton's Center Square brief in order for John todaro and me to get to the Belvidere Surrogate court hearing scheduled for !:00 p.m. tomorrow, "Ground Hog" Day.
I decided on the Feb. 2, "Ground Hog Day," for my announced candidacies to honor Todaro, my press secretary:
That was the, destined be immortalized in the history of Northampton County, that John, standing on the sidewalk at the foot of the steep stairs leading to what once was the Walnut Street entrance to the crumbling courthouse - before 9/11 when that main entrance was closed for "security," John announced his candidacy for Northampton County Executive challenging the corrupt Democratic incumbent Glenn Reibman.
In fact, the mainstreet closing was necessitated to protect the public from the falling debris of the crumbling, maintenance-neglected courthouse cupola - deferred like maintenance of the Easton Parking Authority garage' decks and the windows of Gracedale, located in your borough of Nazareth, whose windows for years now have leaked the rains. snows, sleets, and frigid winter air - just as they've breached the crazed cracks, fissures, and crevasses of the Easton Parking Authority garage, rusting ans snapping and oherwise undermining the steel cables "supporting" the massive concrete decks and destroying their stuctural integretyl.
The parking garage, courthouse cupola, and Gracedale would be a more fitting project for Easton's, Northampton County's, PA Gov. Fast Eddie and the legislature's, and Lafayette College's Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) technolgogy transfer (Public, KIZ our Azz)and "Ambassadors" street-safety initiatives.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteBelay my earlier e-mails re the court hearing in Belvidere. That hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, not today.
That means I'll have to keep my announced candidacies for Easton Mayor and County council District 2 in the press conference already scheduled for 12:00 noon in Easton's Center Square brief in order for John todaro and me to get to the Belvidere Surrogate court hearing scheduled for !:00 p.m. tomorrow, "Ground Hog" Day.
I decided on the Feb. 2, "Ground Hog Day," for my announced candidacies to honor Todaro, my press secretary:
That was the, destined be immortalized in the history of Northampton County, that John, standing on the sidewalk at the foot of the steep stairs leading to what once was the Walnut Street entrance to the crumbling courthouse - before 9/11 when that main entrance was closed for "security," John announced his candidacy for Northampton County Executive challenging the corrupt Democratic incumbent Glenn Reibman.
In fact, the mainstreet closing was necessitated to protect the public from the falling debris of the crumbling, maintenance-neglected courthouse cupola - deferred like maintenance of the Easton Parking Authority garage' decks and the windows of Gracedale, located in your borough of Nazareth, whose windows for years now have leaked the rains. snows, sleets, and frigid winter air - just as they've breached the crazed cracks, fissures, and crevasses of the Easton Parking Authority garage, rusting ans snapping and oherwise undermining the steel cables "supporting" the massive concrete decks and destroying their stuctural integretyl.
The parking garage, courthouse cupola, and Gracedale would be a more fitting project for Easton's, Northampton County's, PA Gov. Fast Eddie and the legislature's, and Lafayette College's Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) technolgogy transfer (Public, KIZ our Azz)and "Ambassadors" street-safety initiatives.
A lot of borough and township councils and boards of supervisors would benefit from TV coverage. But I don't think it is the fix for a bigger problem of people who don't care what goes on in their coummities.
ReplyDeleteI am currently in an unsupported battle to keep Easton's City Council to keep them from destroying the archived sessions.
ReplyDeleteWe (Easton UnDressed) have been recording meetings since Oct 05. They (Council) have recordings on reels-- talk about some history. Their reason for wanting to destroy the recordings is to protect againgst litigation. They want to control the history and information by having the minutes serve as the only record.
They actually ignore me (they don't react or remark) when I bring up the issue.
But I am pure of heart and have the strenght of 10 men; so I will not be put off. I will not let our history be revised.