What are they up to?

County legislators go live

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — If you’ve always wanted to see your county government in action, now you can do that without leaving your home or office. The regular monthly meeting of the Sullivan County Legislature on October 23 was the first to be broadcast live on the Internet and future monthly meetings will also be aired.

The meetings will then be archived at www.StatewideMediaProject.org where they will be able to be viewed at any time.

County chairman Jonathan Rouis said, “This is a great opportunity for residents to stay updated about what’s going on in county government without having to drive to Monticello. With this great service… anyone can watch the meetings live or replay the meetings in their business, offices and homes at a time that is convenient for them.”

The production is being sponsored and hosted by Statewide Media Project, Inc., a new not-for-profit corporation with a mission of providing Internet access to local governments and community events and by Total Webcasting, a company that provides the technology. A grant to fund the project was provided through senator John Bonacic’s office.

At the meeting, legislator Ron Hiatt suggested that the county should go one step further and post all meeting agendas and minutes on the county website, as some towns and school districts currently do.

Earlier this year, lawmaker Alan Sorensen introduced resolutions calling for all legislative meetings to be broadcast on the web. But there was opposition from some legislators who thought there was a lack of public interest in receiving that service.

After the webcast, Sorensen released a statement saying, “Thankfully, the not-for-profit sector and senator John Bonacic saw the value of providing wecasting to make our government more accessible to voters. I am delighted that they were able to deliver to the residents of Sullivan County what the legislature was unwilling to provide.”

At the meeting, he urged residents to take advantage of the technology and tune in. And he said he wanted to remind his fellow lawmakers to “sit up and look awake.”