Speaking of openness and transparency, I turn my attention to the appendage called township government. Well, it would be useless except that townships get to levy property taxes.
Take the Belvidere Township Board ... please! As reporter Jennifer Wheeler wrote Thursday: “The Township Board voted unanimously Aug. 13 to authorize destruction of tapes of its twice-monthly public meetings after trustees approve a report summarizing actions taken.”
First of all, I’m amazed they still record meetings on tape. I wonder when they stopped using wire recorders?
Storage space can’t be an issue in this day and age. I routinely carry around 10,000 albums, including the key speeches of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, in my shirt pocket — stored on an iPod.
As for that written summary, I’m reminded of a common scene from old movies set in fictional newsrooms: “Get me rewrite!” There will be no way for a reader to determine whether the written summary closely resembles what really happened.
Yes, it’s legal to do this. But it’s wrong. What has Belvidere Township to hide that needs to be sanitized into a written summary?
What needs to happen is, a committee of residents takes turns attending the meetings, records them digitally and puts them online. That’ll thwart ’em.
