Closed Curtains at Town Hall

With all of the money invested in a town web page to keep the public informed and to demonstrate a supposed commitment to the principles of open government, it is truly a sad testament that on the morning of a Town Board meeting, there is no agenda posted for public viewing.

We'd like to think it's just an oversight or perhaps just poor management. But when you consider that the Town Board unanimously passed a resolution at it first meeting in 2006 to broadcast it's meetings on Public Access cable television and that more than a thousand dollars was spent putting a camera in the ceiling, there is no other conclusion to be reached except that this group of Board members prefers that the public is kept as much in the dark as possible as to its conduct of public business.

We say that because we are unaware of any meeting broadcast since at least last May 2008 and there seems to me no interest in "fixing" the camera or its associated equipment which was purchased without town board approval through the town clerk's office.

So it should not surprise anyone that there is no agenda posted on the town web page for tonight's scheduled meeting. We are not even certain that group emails are still being sent out to inform those who asked to be on the list because we know of no one who is still receiving them who used to.

So tonight when the public comes to the meeting at 7PM they can hopefully pick up a hard copy of the agenda and offer public comment. Who knows, maybe that is even asking to much?