It seems the aldermen of Starkpatch don't cotton to citizens learning what goes on in their meetings. The Columbus Dispatch reported:
Starkville aldermen are expected to discuss a resolution Tuesday that would ban public attendees from using cell phones, tablets and laptops during board meetings effective Dec. 3.
A copy of the resolution obtained by the Dispatch would address increasing distractions caused by those who operate such devices by prohibiting them inside the city courtroom. If approved, citizens would be forced to pass through a metal detector before entering the board meeting. Those found in violation of the rule may be asked to leave. A Starkville Police Department representative will enforce compliance.
Officials may continue using city-issued iPads to facilitate discussions, and the media may also continue using electronic devices to report board business, the resolution states. The exemptions, however, do not apply to "Internet bloggers or anyone engaged in purely social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc."
However, the newspaper chimed in with its own observations:
The Dispatch, which attends each Starkville Board of Aldermen meeting, has not observed any such disruptions caused by individuals using smart phones or electronic devices since the new board took over July 1. Since that date, the Dispatch has observed minor breaks in protocol during board meetings, mainly from constituents going past their allotted time during the public comment period.
The city has begun live streaming aldermen meetings on the city's website in this current board's term.
It is unknown as of press time if Wiseman will veto the measure if it presented and passed Tuesday.
Multiple public constituents, including those comprising Starkville Thinks, a grassroots collective aiming to shed light upon local governance issues, have live tweeted city board meetings since the new board of aldermen took over. When contacted about the potential board order, former alderman Sandra Sistrunk and Starkville resident Chris Gottbrath -- two residents who have live tweeted aldermen meetings -- both said the potential new rule would stifle public discourse.
"Live tweeting events, especially governmental meetings, is very common. Blogging is part of the world - it's a cornerstone of democracy," Gottbrath said of the potential ramifications to public's ability to live tweet board meetings. Rest of the article
Perhaps I should start teaching these citizens how to really do it if this resolution passes. You know, posting agendas and minutes. Posting contracts, campaign finance reports, the works. The sort of scrutiny no government agency likes. Of course these are the same clowns try to prosecute people who parody them on Twitter.
31 comments:
Lets ban pen and paper while we are at it
Roaches don't like it when the lights are turned on.
There may be a side business opportunity for you in all this KF. Citizens all over the state would do well to hire you for a day long seminar on how to turn those lights on.
Most courtrooms already ban diddling on such devices inside the courtroom. So do many municipal and county bodies. Most who don't already ban them, are considering banning them. They're distractions to the purpose of the meetings. The same as having a bunch of cell phones going off and ipads in use during a university classroom. You're there for a purpose. Observe that or get out. Otherwise, a non-story.
These are the same mouth-breathers who fired the extremely competent chief admin officer because God told them she is gay and shouldn't work for the city. People who get their instructions directly from the almighty typically don't appreciate scrutiny.
Bullshit 10:50 AM. The objective of these bans in public meetings are to restrain and impede transparency.
"The same as having a bunch of cell phones going off and ipads in use during a university classroom"
Bullshit again. I teach at a medical school and the students have laptops in the lecture hall so they can make notes directly on the slides I am showing them (slides are posted on Blackboard before each lecture.
They can also check ESPN.com if they get bored, but in 10 years I've never seen any student disrupt or disturb another student by using their laptop.
Isn't it possible to uses a laptop or Ipod to record the meetings? Things said in private have an expectation of privacy, so maybe that's what they are trying to prevent. Otherwise people recording every word in the meetings, and next thing you know someone posting it on the facebook or somesuch.
Turn the ringer off. That's a reasonable rule. Beyond that you are just stifling media participation. These days anybody with an iPad can be the media and I think Jefferson and Adams would have liked that.
If devices are such a distraction why are top school districts giving all students devices to use in the classroom? Oh wait, Starkville is not a top district.
These politicians have something to learn about representative bodies and the technology of the masses.
Hallelujah! There is a silent majority behind the aldermen of Starkville. Their actions are guided by higher principles than any words written by mortal men.
The bible is all that prevents Starkville from becoming another example of Sodom and Gomorrah on earth.
1:53 read it again. They are talking about PUBLIC meetings. If they have something to say to someone in PRIVATE they can say it outside of a meeting, later. The PUBLIC deserves to know what these PUBLIC servants (hah!) are doing with PUBLIC money.
2:25 you're delusional. go away.
How did the Boardtown council get the idea that it was the "King's Bench"??
2:25 -- You know, I love me some Bible. But too many elected officials and politicos in this state, when called upon to do crazy stuff like make policy or demonstrate administrative leadership, use the Bible to try and slap the desire for accountability right out of the people.
It's offensive, this notion that a Bible-believer is somehow soul-bound to accept crappy city government because, you know, THE BIBLE.
12:13: So, you 'teach at a medical school', which qualifies you to opine as to the 'real reason' for the legislation and the 'true thinking' of the councilmen? Speaking of bullshit. Scuse me while I reject air of superiority.
In classrooms and in public meetings, those in the seats are there for a purpose and it's either being educated or to participate in the public's business ~ Not to tap away at keyboards or diddle with vibrators.
November 17, 2013 at 5:21 PM = the regalia of delusion on full display
5:21 sorry to disrupt your delusions, but I didn't ask for laptops in the lecture hall - the administration mandated the students bring them. Welcome to 21st century education.
What do you use when you are asked to lecture to medical students?
Print and broadcast media are exempt from the ban. It seems the alderman are trying to stifle what I call "citizen reporters" who post their words directly to an internet blog or website.
Good luck with that. Won't hold up in court. Two Circuit rulings on who is a journalist and Supreme Court didn't overturn them as it refused cert on the appeal.
And if anyone knows it is Kingfish!
Wonder what Wiseman thinks about what his son and the aldermen are doing.
Actually, it will hold up in court, it already has. If you have the money, legal ass and influence it will most certainly hold up. There has already been a Supreme Court ruling supporting it, at minimum.
The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets. These indeed have been historic weapons in the defense of liberty, as the pamphlets of Thomas Paine and others in our own history abundantly attest. The press in its connotation comprehends every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion. What we have had recent occasion to say with respect to the vital importance of protecting this essential liberty from every sort of infringement need not be repeated. Near v. Minnesota, supra; Grosjean v. American Press Company, supra; De Jonge v. Oregon, supra
This board approved live streaming of each and every meeting and archives of each meeting are available on the city website for public perusal. Each meeting is also video recorded and televised the following day on local pulbic access television, so just HOW are they impeding transparancy? They are light years ahead of the previous board who placed several controversial items on the agenda labeled with the contact as "Board of Aldermen". While I think the proposed ordinance could be tweaked to allow ipads and laptops, I have been to several meetings where cell phones go off and disrupt the meeting. Last meeting, a cell phone went off twice ringing until voicemail picked up. Cell phones are banned in courtrooms, so WHAT is the difference here?
The current Board doesn't get credit for agendas, minutes, and other documents being online or for the televised broadcast of the meetings. That has been in place for years. The current Board also doesn't get credit for live streaming. That was set in motion by the previous Board. It was only followed up in this term after citizens requested live streaming. By the way, the televised broadcast is only available to Metrocast subscribers.
10:11AM, the fact is THIS board approved and implemented Live Streaming, which you fail to acknowledge actually adds an entirely new level of transparancy to city meetings. Anybody who can read will see I was not giving credit to the existing board for agendas and television, but merely offering evidence that this board has implemented yet one additional way to become transparant to the public. Furthermore, if they didn't want the public involved, why didn't they vote down live streaming (they easily could have). The fact is, besides the media, only 2-3 people are live tweeting (one former board member who lost reelection, one former city administrator who was not reinstated and one or two of their friends). Meetings have been interrupted by cell phones- evidence can be found in years of video as well as live streams online. They might be going a bit over the top by adding ipads and laptops, but they are neither the first nor the last municipality to do this.
Three of the last four posts should even shut the arrogant mouth of the exhalted "lecturer" who is to damned dumb to practice medicine but can 'teach it'.
The intent of the board is obviously NOT to stifle the public's right to know or to erect a barrier in the path of mediocre journalists.
"If anyone knows, it's Kingfish", said nobody, ever.
LMAO. Sounds like Starkville council is riddled with control freaks.
Banning laptops, pads, etc to stop live coverage by citizen journalists and freelance writers won't fly in court.
Put a sign in front of board chambers. If your cell phone goes off you'll be required (politely asked by law enforcement) to depart for the remainder of that meeting.
can't wait to see an officer haul an MSU journalism student out of a meeting because they dare take notes on a new fangled device.
Or heaven forbid, just record the whole thing on an iphone for later use.
might make a great SNL skit
If judges can ban cameras, can't boards ban similar devices? Just axing. Next, some of you wizards will tell us pilots have no right to control electronic devices in the cabin and cops in Connecticut can't ban the use of cell phones in moving autos. As long as the board doesn't ban the use of pencil and pad, they are not restricting the public's right to public information.
The cellular devices banning resolution in Stark Vegas has been amended:Only cellphones are now prohibited.
Why are these long-winded legal beagles of constitutional law out in the blogosphere not outraged at Judge Hilburn's imposing sanctions against Dr. Arnold Smith's attorney and ordering Smith to undergo indefinite "Ezra Pound-like" confinement at a State-run medical facility? What is that the FBI and Jim Hood don't want the public to know about the Greenwood ambush by the AG's office?
Lest we forget, it was the same "Special Judge" Hilburn that presided over the Kangaroo Court trial lynching of Beckwith up there in Batesville. Oddly enough, Beckwith's then court-appointed attorney Jim Kitchens now sits on the Mississippi State Supreme Court?
Columbus' daily newspaper is the Commercial-Dispatch, sometimes referred to as the Comical-Disgrace. It's motto at one time was "All the News That's Fit To Print." A friend told me his Dad liked to sit down after supper and read the Dispatch, because he liked to go to bed with nothing on his mind."
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