In 2007 Gale Brewer, then Chair of the NYC Council Committee of Technology, introduced a law to amend the City Constitution to require webcasting of all City public meetings. This law applies to the Council, Committees, City Agencies, and Task Forces. The law – 2013-103 – was approved unaniminously by the council on November 14 2013, and signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg on December 2 2013, including a budget of $230k in 2014, and $100k/annum thereafter. The law gives the City 90 days to implement, which time is up on March 1 2014 – this Sunday. On Monday February 24 2014 the Committee, now chaired by Council Member James Vacca, held a public hearing for oversight of the implementation process, in the form of a report by Jeff Merritt from the Mayor’s office. Furthermore, Council Member Vacca and some colleagues have introduced a new law – Int 0028 – that will require Community Boards to also webcast their proceedings, so this hearing was an opportunity for public input on that topic. Speakers included Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, representatives of several Community Boards, and public interest groups Citizen’s Union and Reinvent Albany. The last word came from ISOC-NY’s own Joly MacFie, who emphasized flexibilty and the need for transcripts. Video is below, click through to YouTube for an index. A transcript should be available in a day or two.
View on YouTube: http://youtu.be/OtaW_jylwmQ
Twitter: @NYCCouncil
On Sep 27 2016 NBC New York’s I-TEAM posted a story about the lack of LinkNYC kiosks in the outer boroughs.