Foxboro Committee Wrong on TV Issue
by Bill Gouveia for the Sun Chronicle
The Foxboro Advisory Committee (AdCom) doesn’t want its meetings televised. You know, the meetings where they publicly discuss and vote on their recommendations to the citizens on town meeting affairs. The town moderator, who runs town meeting and appoints the AdCom, encouraged that decision.
Shame on them. Their stance is self-serving and wrong, and an affront to the people of Foxboro.
It is hard to understand why a town committee would be encouraged to limit the public’s access to them, which is exactly what has happened here. And any AdCom member who truly believes it is in the public interest to keep their meetings off television should consider a new avenue of public service.
Moderator Frank Spillane said though it is debatable, the public may be better off if the meetings are televised. Then he added, “But that’s not my concern, about educating the community. My concern is you looking at all the warrant issues in front of you and making a recommendation to town meeting.”
Not your concern? Does a more informed public not make for a better, though not necessarily easier town meeting? Is the goal here to make government better for the people, or more convenient for those who serve on committees on their behalf?
The comments from some members were even more stunning.
Stephanie McGowan said members might be hesitant to ask certain questions. Member Larry Ooi said “in the end, I’m not saying we would rubber stamp, but it might feel like it.”
Robert Canfield had perhaps the most telling statement of all.
“As a volunteer, I’m not elected and I’m not paid. In those two situations, it’s different to put yourself out there. In the situation where I’m a volunteer, I don’t want people to be able to watch and misinterpret,” he said. “I would rather have them (the public) read notes based on the facts of the discussion.”
“I don’t want people to be able to watch” is not a phrase that should be used in local government.
If you are afraid to make decisions with people watching, you should reconsider being an AdCom member. If you aren’t willing to “put yourself out there,” you shouldn’t be volunteering for that job in the first place.
If the members of the AdCom “don’t want people to be able to watch” and would “rather have them read notes,” then the good residents of Foxboro have reason to question just what the committee is truly worried about.
It seems the moderator and AdCom are more concerned about the comfort level of individual members than the right of the public to observe their democracy in action. If the AdCom cannot work effectively with people watching, it should be disbanded.
If potential television viewers decided to show up at the meetings in person, would the AdCom become unable to function? Are the members truly that sensitive to scrutiny?
In an incredible bit of irony, the AdCom chairman — at the same meeting — asked the moderator for advice on how the committee could become more transparent. There was no TV, so we don’t know if he said this with a straight face.
Hmmm. Maybe he should have suggested televising their meetings.
Bill Gouveia is a local columnist and a local town moderator. He can be emailed at billsinsidelook@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @Billinsidelook.
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