Herschlag: What’s The Big Secret?

The piece I am posting is about transparency and your right to access information that is required by state statutes to be accessible to you.

Recently the city council has had a number of meetings that while noticed (posted) and open to the public, were not aired or recorded by Concord TV. The city council’s priority setting session on January 29, the meeting with the two consultants from Code Studio on form based codes on February 6 and our city council work session reviewing the Capital Improvement Program on March 5.

Additionally, at the first two meetings we were seated in a manner that half the councilors backs were to those seated.

NH State law RSA 91-A, commonly referred to as the State’s right to know law, defines the many obligations public bodies must follow to allow you to stay informed of their proceedings. This is in part what 91-A says regarding public meetings:

RSA 91-A:2-III(c) - Each part of a meeting required to be open to the public shall be audible or otherwise discernable to the public at the location specified in the meeting notice as the location of the meeting.

How well can those in attendance hear someone speaking to you when their back is to you? How well can you hear someone when their back is to you and you are sitting in a chair a number of rows back?

All of these meetings were held in City Council Chambers. The first two meetings were held not at our desks but in the back of the chamber, making potential recordings of the meetings difficult, at best. At the most recent meeting the city council was at their desks, yet no broadcast or recording occurred.

So why would we make it difficult for the public to hear our thoughts on city priorities for the next two years? Why would we not want the public to hear our initial conversation with the zoning consultants who will be guiding us in changes to our zoning codes that will impact our community for years to come. Why shouldn’t the public be able to listen to the city council discuss the Capital improvement Program plan that looks at spending for the next ten years? The CIP is a $325,656,233 budget program for budget years 2018-2027 as listed in the 2018 Budget.

Unfortunately this is not a new issue. The first year I was on the city council we had our priority setting session at the Beaver Meadow golf course. No one was there to record our meeting. Two years later we also had our meeting at the golf course. What was different is that I had requested that our meeting be recorded. While not a live feed, CTV did record our meeting.

These are the minutes from our meeting with Code Studio on February 6:

“Action: Mr. Einsweiler provided a summary of the project and timeline sharing hisimpressions of the community and regulatory environment thus far. He answered questions from Council members and asked about issues they were aware of or wanted to share. Members of Council shared their impression of the community and issues they feel should be addressed.”

This meeting lasted one hour and 15 minutes. Now compare these minutes to what you would have heard on a recording by CTV. Do you have any idea what was discussed? Do you have any idea what councilors thoughts or what our concerns are? And do you have any idea what direction or goals the consultants have specific to Concord?

The Concord Monitor does not always have a reporter at our City Council meetings. They either rely on CTV recordings or city councilor comments. When no recording is available and no reporter is present, it is not possible for the Concord Monitor to compare councilors’ comments with what occurred at our meetings.

The difference is obvious. Watching or listening to a recording you are able to understand the full context of the meeting and how events occurred. In contrast minutes that are not verbatim can be just a summary of the meeting. You do not have the opportunity to hear the full discussion. While minutes may state that there was opposing testimony or concerns were voiced, minutes do not have to include the full contents of those dissenting voices or their specific concerns.

What happens when the city council evaluates the city managers performance as we are required to do each year? What happens when we approve a union contract?

In today’s Concord Monitor there is an article about our City Manager’s salary. At the end of the article there is a link to all city employee salaries for 2017.

Personally, I believe the city manager’s evaluation should remain confidential. But, I believe that the criteria we evaluate the manager on should be public. And I believe we can - and should - do a better job of informing the public of what is in the manager’s contract before we approve it.

Union contracts should be negotiated in private. But again, the public should have an opportunity to understand what was negotiated before the city council votes on the contract.

When you go to the polls you elect us to represent you. I believe we all try to do this to the best of our ability. That means sometimes you will agree with us and other times you won’t. If we are doing our job and listening to you, you should be agreeing with our votes more often than not.

Your city council should be constantly working to ensure that what we do and why we do it is accessible to you. Not in the least informative medium, but the medium that offers you the best understanding of the issues that come before us.