Trustees Cool to Video
Meetings of the East Hampton Town Trustees, the town’s original governing body created in 1686 by King James II through the Dongan Patent, are not broadcast on LTV, in contrast to those of the town board, many of the town’s other governing bodies, and the East Hampton Village board and zoning board of appeals.
The trustees’ meeting place, a small room at the Donald Lamb Building in Amagansett, is not conducive to video production: The nine trustees, their attorney, and their secretary are joined by those with business before the board, be they shorefront property owners, contractors, or, as has recently been the case, tenants of trustee-owned land at Lazy Point in Amagansett. These groups, which can number 30 or more, often overflow into the hallway.
The secretary makes an audio recording of the meetings, which is transcribed for the minutes that become the trustees’ official record. Soon, however, that may not be the only document. At the governing body’s April 14 meeting, Chini Alarco was among several Lazy Point residents who asked if they were allowed to record the meeting with their smartphones.
At the time, only four trustees were in the room, and Diane McNally, the group’s clerk, said she would discuss it with her colleagues when a majority was present. The minutes, she said, are available to the public. If the trustees met at the Town Hall complex, a prospect raised in recent months, video recording would be more realistic, but, she said, “with the amount of money available and the resources we have here, it would look very much like a home movie.”
Regardless of whether the trustees’ meetings are recorded by LTV personnel, “any meeting of a public body that is open to the public shall be open to being photographed, broadcast, webcast, or otherwise recorded and/or transmitted by audio or video means,” according to New York State’s Open Meetings Law.
“It’s very important that what our public officials do is transparent,” Ms. Alarco said Tuesday, “and that people know how they decide things.” While the trustees’ meetings are open to the public, “I have a feeling that there is not that commitment to be open,” she said.
If a member of the public wants to record the meetings, “as long as it’s not disruptive to the open meeting,” Ms. McNally said this week, “we’ll recognize that.” The clerk noted that government meetings tend to begin with an instruction to turn off cellphones and other electronic devices so as not to disrupt the proceedings. “We’ve turned a corner on that idea,” she said.
A public body, such as the trustees, can adopt rules as to the placement of equipment and audio or video technicians in order to maintain an orderly meeting, according to the law, but those in attendance are within their rights to record the proceedings.
“There’s no reason not to be filmed,” Ms. McNally said, “except it’s an inconvenience now. I’m either going to have nine trustees that get incredibly quiet — camera-shy — or you’re going to get people that want to come and grandstand. We’re all human, we make mistakes. We might say things we might not mean, or be taken out of context. But for the most part, there’s no reason not to be filmed.”
Accommodating audiovisual equipment for recording and broadcast by LTV, said East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, “is an issue for the trustees to decide. They’re an independently elected body. As the trustees would tell you, they prefer the town board not interfere with their work.” Nonetheless, Mr. Cantwell said, “If the trustees would agree, we’d be happy to work with LTV for a camera setup in their current meeting room, and if they wanted to move to another venue we’d certainly help them find that venue where they could be recorded, including Town Hall.”
The town board will do whatever is reasonable to accommodate the recording of trustee meetings, he said. “LTV’s coverage and therefore the public’s ability to watch public meetings . . . represent an opportunity for the public to participate, in their home, in local government. The trustees should be included in that.”
“I think it would be better for them to televise, I just think they don’t realize it,” Elaine Jones, an Amagansett resident who attends many of the trustees’ meetings, said. “It would be more open.”
While she agrees in principle, Ms. McNally advised that “the best thing is to make the effort to show up at the public meeting.”