Video good addition, but not replacement for published minutes

Linn County Supervisors, it seems, finally are ready for their close-up.

The board is in the process of turning on video cameras and recording equipment installed in its meeting rooms at the county's Public Services Center. The equipment was put in place during post-flood remodeling, but until now, supervisors balked at the cost of activating it to record meetings.

That reluctance prompted Auditor Joel Miller to record meetings using a modest, single camera setup. Now, supervisors have received estimates showing the cost of equipment updates and ongoing video production is far cheaper than initially was expected - a one-time cost of about $9,000 for the necessary computer hardware and $850 a month to pay for a vendor to provide the service, rather than the $50,000-per-year estimate they received five years ago. They intend to begin recording meetings and posting the video online next year.

It's a decision that's welcome and long overdue. The Cedar Rapids City Council and school board, among other local governmental bodies, already post meeting video online. Some meetings are rebroadcast on local cable TV. It's a good way to expand access to citizens who can't make it to meetings.

Less welcome is the supervisors' potential plan for paying the cost of adding video by curtailing the written meeting minutes published in local newspapers.

We should note that The Gazette is among local newspapers paid to run those legal notifications and minutes. That's because state law, Iowa Code Chapter 349, requires counties to publish legal notices in papers with the largest number of 'bona fide yearly subscribers” within the county. The law is intended to make sure residents have access to information about their local government. As Miller points out, there are county residents who depend on those notices, which contain plenty of detail about county discussions and debates. Some of those folks might not be online. Trading video for published minutes may mean they receive less information about county business.

We are glad that supervisors want to make efficient use of resources, and it may be possible to streamline written minutes to save some money. But the county's top priority must be to provide meaningful information to residents and taxpayers.

Webcasting video is an excellent way to do so. But it must be in addition to, not instead of, published minutes.

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