The New York Coalition For Open Government will release a report on Thursday morning regarding livestreaming of meetings by villages, towns and cities. See the attached press release.
The report will be posted on their website www.nyopengov.org.
According to the group, they partnered with the Cornell University State Policy and Advocacy Clinic and reviewed the websites of approximately 1,200 villages, towns and cities across New York State to determine if they were livestreaming their meetings for the public.
This report provides an interesting overview of the state of livestreaming meetings in NY. Through visual charts the report will show the:
- percentage of villages, towns and cities that are livestreaming their meetings
- counties with the highest/lowest rate of local government livestreaming (in 8 counties there is no local government livestreaming occurring)
- regions doing livestreaming at higher rates than others
- impact population size has on livestreaming
- methods of livestreaming being utilized
The COVID pandemic changed how the world operates in so many ways. Remote and hybrid meetings have become a new way of life that have many positive aspects. Local governments need to evolve with the times and the technology available to conduct hybrid meetings as it is not that difficult or expensive. Many local governments with small populations and budgets have figured out how to do hybrid meetings.
“We support providing additional funding to local governments to address any technology needs or assistance so that they can livestream and record their meetings,” the group said via a press release.
Two states have recently passed laws requiring local governments to livestream their meetings and to post recordings online: Oregon & Indiana. Similar bills have been proposed in other states: Virginia, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Maryland.
“The time has come for New York State to be an early leader and adopter in providing greater public access to governmental meetings by requiring that public bodies livestream in person meetings and post recordings of such meetings online,” the group said in their press release.
