Opinion
At recent Township Council meetings, resident Justin Aplert has asked members the same question: why is the public conference meeting not recorded and shared, in the same manner as the regular meeting? We agree that Livingston’s citizens would benefit from this change in policy.
These meetings are held in the conference room, adjacent to Town Hall chambers, which is where the regular meetings take place. So much happens during the conference meetings, and yet there are regularly only one or two residents that attend them. But just because people cannot make a 6:30 p.m. start time (or an end time regularly after 10 p.m.), does not mean that they would not benefit from the critical information that is shared during these sessions.
These portions of the meeting regularly run roughly 90 minutes, if not longer. Many evenings, the conference meetings are much longer than the regular ones. Watch just the regular meeting on a given evening, and you might think the evening’s discussion lasted roughly one hour, not realizing that the governing body had actually met for closer to four hours. That is a lot of substantial discussion that goes unheard by the vast majority of residents.Aside from a few residents who are “regulars,” members of the press, and those scheduled to address the Council during this time, the conference meetings are not well attended, despite the fact that they are open to all.
Recording and sharing the conference meetings is something we have advocated for in the past, and for good reason. For two years, during the worst of COVID, the regular and conference sections were combined into a single meeting, all livestreamed for the public to watch. We were disappointed that this combined format did not remain when meetings moved back to an in-person format. Even if they remain separate, there is no reason the township shouldn’t record them, as well.
Officials may call these meetings “public” all they want – yes, we are aware anyone can attend them; nobody is disputing that – but they also know that more can be done to make them accessible to residents. In the years since we have reverted from livestreaming the entirety of these meetings during the pandemic, we have yet to hear a reason for not continuing to record the conference portion that did not amount to simply “we do not want to.”
The regular meetings are where matters are made official, where resolutions are passed, ordinances are discussed, and proclamations are issued; they are, of course, important and well worth attending. But the conference meetings leading up to the regular meetings set the table for everything that occurs. It is at those informal meetings where attendees will find lively discussions and questions that lead to much of the future business of the township.
Recently, these have included in-depth discussions about long-in-the-works projects such as the new Department of Public Works facility and the future of the town’s pools. There have also been discussions about the dire need to raise utility rates, altering parking at certain locations, and adding new recreation destinations in town. All of these are serious discussions that the public would benefit from hearing. Yet, none of this would be known to those who only attend the regular meeting or watch it online (unless you are a regular reader of the Tribune, of course!).
We understand that Council members may value the informality of the conference meetings, and are wary that livestreaming them will take that away from them. But that did not occur in the two years the meetings were combined, and we do not believe that enjoying the conferences’ more relaxed nature is a justifiable reason not to record a portion of a public meeting.
Perhaps the Council might consider this among their New Year’s resolutions. Recording the conference meetings would improve transparency, as more residents would witness some of the additional discussion they have requested. Certainly, the Council should value increased transparency in government, so going back to recording these meetings is truly a win-win for all!
Until the Council decides that these public meetings deserve to be shared the same as the regular meetings, the only way to learn what happens during them is to attend them yourself (and, of course, read about them in the paper). Conference meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. prior to every regular meeting, which usually begins at 7:30 p.m. Should those conferences run long (which they almost always do), they are continued at the conclusion of the regular meeting. The first conference meeting of 2025 is scheduled for Monday, January 13. Perhaps we will see some more of you there.
