Middletown Township Committee Refuses to Televise its Meetings

Middletown resident Mike DiCicco penned this thought-provoking essay.  It is worth sharing:

During the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple unveiled a commercial to launch its revolutionary personal computer, the Macintosh.  The commercial shows a “Big Brother” like face on a large screen spewing propaganda to an audience of robotic men and women marching into a theatre.  Big Brother's mind control of the audience ends when an athletic woman runs into the theatre ahead of the thought police, hurls a brass headed hammer at the image on the screen and destroys the screen.  The commercial conveys the message that information freely provided to the people prevents abuse of power by the Government.

The Middletown Township Committee has not gotten that message.  Even though a group of concerned residents has provided the Township Committee with videos of meetings of the Township Committee and will continue to do so, free of charge, the Committee refuses to permit the meetings to be broadcast on local access television.  The concerned residents have purchased the equipment to videotape and now videotape the meetings for the public’s benefit. Concerned residents are not asking the Township Committee to spend any money to videotape the meetings.  All they've asked the Township Committee to do is authorize broadcast of the meetings.  But for no good reason, the Township Committee refuses to permit the meetings to be broadcast.

You have the right to see what the Township Committee does and how it runs.  You have the right to view the meetings in your home on local television. You have the right to receive information freely and openly about our Middletown.  Broadcasting the meetings not only secures these rights but also helps prevent the Middletown Township Committee from abusing its governmental power. Let the Township Committee know how you feel. Remember, the members of the Committee work for us; we do not work for them.

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To that I add the following:  

I think it’s high time the Township Committee broadcast its public meetings on free cable access television.  Other towns do and some even live stream.  In 2014, a grant of up to $200,000 will become available from Comcast for this purpose.  But there is no cost to the Township even today because residents already video-record Township Committee meetings and provide a free unedited DVD of each meeting to the Township, which simply needs to pop the DVD into the broadcasting equipment already set up at Town Hall.  Right now, the recordings can only be found online such that residents who don’t have internet – many seniors in particular – still can’t see their local government at work. 

Those who wish to see the meeting videos can find them under the media tab at www.MiddletownDemocrat.org.  Public comments are at the end of each meeting, so that’s a good place to start if you don’t have the time to view meetings in their entirety.

In addition to Township Committee meetings, public board meetings can also be recorded and televised.  See the drop down menu on the above website for a selection of available videos.  Some audio recordings are also available.