Minutes before joining five fellow Nahant Planning Board members in voting to ask town officials to stop recording and posting board Zoom meetings to YouTube, Robert Steinberg asked Town Counsel Daniel Skrip if the vote “…might create the impression that we are afraid to be transparent?”
The answer, Mr. Steinberg, is yes.
Board member John Shannon Bianchi made the motion during the board’s Dec. 21 meeting to halt meeting postings, stating: “I’d like a little more privacy.”
No problem, Mr. Bianchi: We suggest you quit the board and allow someone comfortable with serving the town in the public spotlight to take your place.
Bianchi left it to Board Chairman Daniel Berman to explain why the board doesn’t want its meeting recordings on YouTube.
“Given the animosity with Northeastern (University), I think it’s probably a good idea not to record and publish the meetings,” he said.
Again, if you can’t stand the proverbial heat, Mr. Chairman, then it’s time to get out of the kitchen.
We wonder if Bianchi, Berman and the other members who voted to call for a halt in recording and posting — Sheila Hambleton, Cal Hastings, Steinberg and Steven Viviano — understand that transparency takes on even greater importance at a time when COVID-19 has driven public boards and committees out of meeting rooms.
Hambleton apparently doesn’t grasp that concept. She seconded Bianchi’s motion and stated that people interested in the Planning Board’s work should refer to the board minutes and not have “conflicting information” on a video.
Conflicting information? Seriously?
Her remarks call into question her fitness to serve on the board. Anyone who has ever taken notes at a meeting knows that the notes are a summary — a condensation — of the conversations that took place in the meeting.
COVID-19 forced all manner of meetings three years ago to move to remote video conferences. In an age when transparency has become a watchword for all individuals in positions of authority, the Planning Board’s vote in favor of halting meeting recordings and postings to YouTube is an effort to deny transparency.
The Open Meeting law states “any member of the public may make an audio or video recording of an open session of a public meeting” subject to providing prior notice of the intent to record to the board chair.
Patrick O’Reilly, the only board member to vote against the posting ban, concisely stated why it is important for board meeting recordings to be viewable on YouTube.
“We’ve all gone remote… there is more openness electronically these days.”
With his words in mind, the board should reconsider its opposition to YouTube postings, or members opposed to the postings should resign and make way for people committed to transparency to serve on the board.
