Council close to TV deal
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
3/6/2008

BOE agrees to broadcast bi-weekly Council meetings on public access channel 19

After a few months of contention, the Cherry Hill Board of Education has agreed to let the township Council broadcast its bi-weekly meetings on public access channel 19.

Township Council President Steve Polansky made the announcement at the Feb. 26 Council meeting.

“While progress may be slow, we are indeed making progress,” Polansky said. “The board of education has agreed to let us use channel 19 to broadcast our Council meetings.”

The township first approached the school district in the fall about broadcasting its Council meetings on the local channel, but discussions were postponed until after the November election because the district said it did not want to broadcast political content on the channel. In December the board first met to discuss broadcasting the meetings.

Township Communication Director Dan Keashen said Mayor Bernie Platt had made it a priority to broadcast township Council meetings on channel 19 to create a transparent environment for Cherry Hill elected officials to work in.

“Holding onto a promise he made last year, the mayor wanted to provide our residents with the opportunity to see their government in action without the hassle of traveling to town hall,” he said. “Now the township is on the cusp of seeing that promise fulfilled and the mayor believes that our community will be the benefactor.”

The details of the future broadcast have yet to be ironed out, Keashen said. Township employees will tape, edit and provide all material of the meetings to the school district at no additional cost to the township taxpayers.

The day and time the broadcast will be played on channel 19 has yet to be determined, he said.

“The township still needs to iron out the broadcasting details with the school district. We will sit down this week and talk about the logistics,” Keashen said. “Going forward, the township will maintain an open dialogue with the school district on this issue.”

In other township news:

The Cherry Hill Reform Committee addressed members of the Council and thanked them for several ordinances passed in the last few weeks to make Cherry Hill public government more transparent.

Despite the recent ordinances, the committee stressed that the Council needs to do more to make public government more accessible to residents. Members of the committee suggested the Council look into podcast technology to broadcast its meetings and putting up their meeting agendas, resolutions and ordinances on the Web site prior to the meetings.

Additionally, the committee asked the Council to look into modifying the public comment portion of its meeting. As it stands, the members of Council do not respond to public comment until the very end of the meeting, with members of the public not being able to respond to comments made by .

The committee submitted a number of suggested ordinances to Polansky for his review. Polansky said he would be reviewing the committee’s suggestions in the upcoming months.

As per putting up agendas on the township’s Web site, Polansky said residents could find the agendas on the site the Friday before a scheduled Monday meeting.

However, the agendas are subject to change if ordinances or resolutions need to be added or taken off the meeting’s agenda.

Podcasting, Polansky said, would be difficult at this time for the township because it does not currently possess the technology for that type of content.