Beginning with the February 13 Township Council meeting, a new recording setup was installed in Town Hall, designed to improve livestreaming capabilities. There are now fixed cameras mounted throughout the room, and improved microphones are expected to arrive for installation in the coming weeks. An employee, situated in the back of the room, operates the cameras. The employee essentially serves as the “director” for the video that is streamed to the public and available to view on the Livingston Township, NJ, Facebook page.
One meeting in, and the difference from what that livestream used to be, compared to its quality now, is night and day. With changing cameras and closeups on speakers (as opposed to static shots of the room), viewers can get a real sense of what is happening during the meeting. And, even as we wait for new microphones to arrive, the audio is finally clear enough to hear everyone speak, which has been a frustrating challenge over the past year since the return to in-person meetings.
We are thrilled that this improves the quality of meetings for those who are unable to attend in person, or prefer to watch from home. Upgrading the livestream was necessary, and the new setup addresses the major concerns from previous meetings. Now, we just need to make sure every governing body in town takes advantage of it.
The Board of Education has had a similar competent setup for its meetings for over a year. The Zoning Board is still meeting over Zoom. Both sets of meetings are easily accessible to the public via livestream on Facebook.
That just leaves the Planning Board, which meets in the same Town Hall chambers as the Council, and has the same access to its technology. Yet, as of the start of 2023, the Board no longer livestreams its meetings, as it had been for the past several years. Planning Board meetings, like all township meetings, were held over Zoom from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly three years ago through the end of 2022.
Since March of 2020, the public had been able to view all four sets of meetings from the comfort of their homes, providing equitable access to all who wished to watch them. If someone was ill or otherwise unable to attend a meeting in person, they did not have to miss anything from these meetings that directly shape the makeup of the town. When the Board of Education and the Township Council returned to gathering in person, their meetings remained visible to those who stayed home. This was a wise and straightforward decision: Livestreamed meetings had been offered for an extended period of time, it has proven to be relatively easy to execute, and that genie cannot simply go back in the bottle.
Yet, for some reason, the Planning Board is currently doing just that – needlessly pulling its meeting access back to where it was in 2019 – even though livestreaming has never been easier, following the changes to Town Hall. What justifiable reason could there be that the Planning Board is the sole governing body in town that chooses not to stream its meetings to the public? The town spent money on a competent setup for the very room in which the Planning Board meets. This isn’t difficult; to provide that access to the public is a no-brainer.
We understand why the Planning Board applicants should attend meetings in person to discuss the matters on the agenda when possible, and we fully agree with that decision. But that should have no bearing on whether or not these meetings are livestreamed to the public, as they had been for nearly three years. Why should concerned residents be required to attend in person, when they have not needed to do so for quite some time now? Additionally, the livestreamed link remains active on the township’s Facebook page following the conclusion of the meeting, so those who could not watch live have had the option to do so at a time that is convenient for them. That benefit has also been needlessly taken away with the removal of livestreaming.
The good news is that this issue of equitable access for all can be fixed with the simple click of a button. Nothing needs to be done on the Planning Board’s end but to agree to turn those cameras on while they meet. Again, this should not be difficult. The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for March 7, and we hope to see this change by then.
