Nash: Bedford Town Council Plays Hide And Seek, Again

In April, the Bedford Town Council retreated to an off-camera, 5-hour, meeting to discuss and establish their council goals for the year.

Now, in the process of filling a council seat left by the passing of Bill Duschatko, the Town Council is once again hiding from BCTV cameras and will make Bedford residents seek their own ways to observe elected officials in action.

Only July 20th, the council will have a public meeting to ask questions of anyone who applies as a candidate for council, but they won't be broadcasting on BCTV as they normally do.

The question is, why?

Shouldn't the Town Council be doing their best to conduct the business of the town in an open, transparent, and observable way?

Unfortunately, when asked the reason for keeping the cameras off while speaking with candidates, they declined to respond. See below.

Democracy dies in darkness.

Why does the Bedford Town Council keep pulling the shades?

Jay Nash

From: jay nash <enash@eight-stars.com>
Subject: Candidates for Public Office and observable public process
Date: July 14, 2022 at 16:26:51 EDT
To: Councilors <councilors2@bedfordnh.org>

91-A:1 Preamble. – Openness in the conduct of public business is essential to a democratic society. The purpose of this chapter is to ensure both the greatest possible public access to the actions, discussions and records of all public bodies, and their accountability to the people.


Folks,

I’ve been informed by Bill Carter that you will have a public meeting of the Town Council to conduct interviews of any candidates for the current vacancy, but that you have chosen not to turn on the cameras and televise the meeting on BCTV.

The Bedford Town Council broadcasts the vast, vast, majority of its public meetings on BCTV, so your decision to not broadcast this particular meeting is conspicuous in its deviation from normal practice.

What reason(s) do you, as individual officials, have for deciding the “interview” meeting of candidates for public office should not be on BCTV?

What process do you use to determine what public meetings should, or should not be on BCTV? What advantage do you seek for Bedford’s residents by increasing the difficulty to observe your questions of the candidates for public office?

The Bedford Men’s Club, a private body you all know well, questions candidates for elected office each year, from the same room and using the same broadcast equipment.

How is it the Bedford Town Council, a public body by law, choses to be less open, transparent, and observable doing the same task?

These are all real questions (not rhetorical) and I am genuinely interested in your responses.

Thank you for your time,
Jay Nash