Editorial: County Board meetings on TV

Showing public meetings on TV is good for democracy. McLeod County has an opportunity to make sure taxpayers never miss a single meeting.

The Hutchinson Community Video Network will begin taping and showing McLeod County Board meetings starting next week. That’s good news for taxpayers who want to see how county decisions are made.

The tapings are a generous gesture by HCVN, which has agreed to do the tapings on a trial basis for six months. It will cost a good deal of money for Hutchinson’s local public access channel to send an employee to each board meeting.

We believe the county should pay HCVN for its costs. And we believe the tapings should continue indefinitely beyond the initial six months.
That should not surprise anyone who has read this page for the past several years. Repeatedly, we have asked the County Board to set aside money for the taping to its meetings. Repeatedly, the board has chosen to ignore our recommendation.

A convincing argument
We haven’t stood alone in our desire to have these meetings shown. A little more than two years ago, the city of Glencoe sent someone to tape County Board meetings. Those tapings continued for several months. Glencoe paid a cost that rightly belonged to the county.

Now HCVN has come forward. If nothing else, HCVN’s decision to tape meetings should send a signal to the County Board that people want to watch their meetings from the comfort of their living rooms.

We believe the County Board should commit itself to showing its meetings for these reasons as well:

— Almost every other major public body in our region is already demonstrating its transparency to taxpayers. Almost every county surrounding McLeod County — Stearns, Kandiyohi, Renville, Sibley and Carver — videotape their meetings for taxpaying viewers at home. The Hutchinson City Council and District 423 School Board wouldn’t think of conducting a regular meeting without having the public access television cameras there.

— Taxpayers responding to the Leader’s unscientific poll on its Web site, hutchinsonleader.com, want county meetings shown. A few years ago they voted 108 to 12 in favor of it.

— Three McLeod County commissioners — Bev Wangerin, Grant Knutson and Ray Bayerl — told us three years ago while campaigning for re-election that they saw great value in showing taped meetings to taxpayers.

At a recent meeting, the County Board informally endorsed the taping of its meetings. Now the board can go one step further. It can join other public bodies conducting business transparently in the 21st century by committing itself to these tapings. Taxpayers need and deserve it.

Why meetings should be shown

- Showing County Board meetings on TV enhances communication between elected leaders and voters.
- Voters who watch public meetings gain valuable knowledge and become better-informed.
- Voters might feel more compelled to call their county commissioners to express their views on issues.
- They might be more inclined to attend a meeting after seeing what happens at a meeting.
- County Board meetings take place during the day, when most people are at work or school. Citizens deserve to see the inner workings of the County Board at a time that’s convenient for them.