10 signatures reached
To: Mayor Levin and Members of the Elmhurst City Council
Please consider recording (or livestreaming) City Council committee meetings in Elmhurst!
Dear Mayor Levin and Members of the Elmhurst City Council:
We respectfully request that you begin recording and/or livestreaming Elmhurst City Council committee meetings. We present the following arguments for your consideration:
We respectfully request that you begin recording and/or livestreaming Elmhurst City Council committee meetings. We present the following arguments for your consideration:
Why is this important?
1. Many residents have schedules that are prohibitive to attending City Council meetings. The recordings we have of the regularly scheduled meetings allow us to review the dialogue that occurs and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the issues at play. How is this any less relevant for committee meetings, which so many people describe as "where the action occurs."
2. This is long overdue. See https://share.google/yQCi0GwKls6x8K0MR and https://share.google/HyZIUaHVB2ZHpjbr9 we gather that Mayor Levin is worried about how recording would impact cost and the continued ability to foster open dialogue, A) Livestreaming is free and B) Recording actually shouldn't be prohibitive to elected officials conversing in a candid manner. In addressing the mayor's concern that snippets of recorded meetings could be posted to social media and potentially subject to poor contextualization, isn't the same risk applicable to ANY meeting that is recorded and made accessible to the public?
3. Other neighboring communities (Hinsdale, Lombard, Naperville, and Addison to name a few, indicate on their websites that they record committee meetings. Is it not worth considering why they are willing to take this extra step to strengthen community transparency)?
Please therefore consider placing Michael Bram's request to record committee meetings on the agenda for a vote. He has asked twice, and neither request has ever made it to the agenda.
As residents, we understand that maintaining and improving our town requires an ongoing investment. Yet, the more that is asked of residents, the more that residents have a right to evaluate the conversations and information that ultimately drive decisions that affect all of us.
Please take steps to preserve the transparency that is so critical to our moving together as what Elmhurst truly is--a community.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
2. This is long overdue. See https://share.google/yQCi0GwKls6x8K0MR and https://share.google/HyZIUaHVB2ZHpjbr9 we gather that Mayor Levin is worried about how recording would impact cost and the continued ability to foster open dialogue, A) Livestreaming is free and B) Recording actually shouldn't be prohibitive to elected officials conversing in a candid manner. In addressing the mayor's concern that snippets of recorded meetings could be posted to social media and potentially subject to poor contextualization, isn't the same risk applicable to ANY meeting that is recorded and made accessible to the public?
3. Other neighboring communities (Hinsdale, Lombard, Naperville, and Addison to name a few, indicate on their websites that they record committee meetings. Is it not worth considering why they are willing to take this extra step to strengthen community transparency)?
Please therefore consider placing Michael Bram's request to record committee meetings on the agenda for a vote. He has asked twice, and neither request has ever made it to the agenda.
As residents, we understand that maintaining and improving our town requires an ongoing investment. Yet, the more that is asked of residents, the more that residents have a right to evaluate the conversations and information that ultimately drive decisions that affect all of us.
Please take steps to preserve the transparency that is so critical to our moving together as what Elmhurst truly is--a community.
Thanks for your time and consideration.