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I am a reporter working on a story about residents in the town of Malta asking the town board to get the Planning Board to stream its meetings.
The town board currently does livestream its meetings, and residents want the same for the Planning Board, particularly because of the ongoing development in the area. The Planning Board members are not voted-in officials.
In your opinion, should Planning Board meetings be streamed if a town has the equipment to do so? What does streaming them say about transparency?
Thanks for contacting me regarding your article
An important aspect of government transparency is ensuring that the public can observe and understand the discussions and actions taken by government officials. Since not everyone can attend meetings in person, government meetings should be livestreamed whenever possible, with recordings made available online afterward.
If the town of Malta is already livestreaming its town board meetings, there is no legitimate reason not to extend this practice to Planning Board meetings. Both the Town Board and the Planning Board should fully commit to transparency by livestreaming all meetings.