Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Columbia Borough is done with livestreaming - and maybe transparency


At the June 27, 2023 Columbia Borough Council meeting, Council President Heather Zink announced that borough meetings will no longer be livestreamed due to issues with Comcast and Facebook. Instead, meetings are to be recorded and posted on the borough's YouTube channel the next day. However, the July 11, 2023 meeting, held two weeks ago, has not been posted, and neither has an explanation. Fortunately, Columbia Spy has posted an audio recording of the meeting HERE.

(To be fair, a video recording of the first meeting under the new procedure (July 6, 2023) was posted, although a day late.)

Without livestreaming, residents will no longer be able to view meetings in real time, unless they attend in person, and not everyone is able to do so. Posting video recordings is a second best option, but one that residents might be left with - if only borough officials would do it in a timely manner. Otherwise, transparency will take another hit from an already secretive borough government. 

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