Wed 19 Nov 2008
Community Oversight of the Planning Board
Posted by WillR under ChapelHill , Community , Technology[2] Comments
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As a current member of the Planning Board I wholeheartedly agree. I would love to find better ways to engage the citizens in the process and making the meetings available more widely would certainly help. – (John Ager)
Chad has responded positively. “We would be happy to assist the town in covering meetings. I am happy to provide quotes for service…”
So, looks like if we’re serious we’ll have to flash some cash…
The Planning Board wields great influence. Their decisions not only lead to policy changes altering our physical landscape but have direct impact on the Town’s economic and cultural future.
Advisory board minutes (when they are kept, when they are current) often document a few points of contention, some clarifications and the end-product. What is “important” isn’t necessarily captured. Nuance is the first casualty.
There is ZERO excuse for not providing audio recordings of every advisory board meeting. Video documentation, preferably on-line, for the Planning Board – especially considering the volume of visual evidence presented – is necessary.
Besides providing background on decisions affecting our citizens – a fundamental requirement for anyone espousing open governance principles – recording meetings might actually improve the process.
Some of CitizenWill’s readers know about the internal struggles the Tech Board had. I think if we had been recording the meetings, it might have tempered some of the ill feelings and possibly improved the brevity of folks (like myself) that made some meetings drag on.