It’s a shame that it has taken the county this long to recognize that one of its greatest responsibilities is to be as open and accessible –– that is, transparent –– as possible. That said, we commend Gonsalves and Abrahams for finally putting critical hearing information –– including archived videos –– on the county website. Too many legislative hearings are held at times of day when people work, so they can’t make the meetings. We believe the decision to post legislative hearing records online will foster a new era of participation in county government.

We also offer high praise to Boitel for forcing the county’s hand. Lots of people have complained about the county’s lack of transparency. He did something about it.

We believe archived transcripts and videos should be made available at all levels of government, from special districts to school boards to villages and towns, all of which have varied –– and often inadequate –– posting policies. A handful post transcripts; most do not. Some post minutes; others do not. Some live-stream meetings; most do not. Rarely do we find archived videos at the local level.

With such a disjointed array of policies, we believe state legislation is needed that would require governments at all levels to post meeting transcripts and videos. Yes, this would require time, work and an expenditure of taxpayer dollars. In the end, however, the need for government transparency and citizen participation in the legislative process would trump the relatively minor cost.

If a government body is unable to produce meeting transcripts –– and we don’t see why it couldn’t –– it should at least post meeting minutes. According to New York state’s Open Meetings Law, minutes of government meetings must be made available to the public within two weeks of those meetings, and minutes of executive sessions must be made available within one week. If the minutes have not been approved, they may be marked “draft,” “unapproved” or “non-final.”