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Fredonia village officials recently questioned the continued videotaping of trustees' workshops.
Fredonia Fire Chief Joshua Myers said he thought it was decided that workshops would no longer be on camera.
"It never happened, I'm not sure why," Myers said. He was speaking at one of said workshops, with his comments still available to anyone with Internet access.
Trustee Paul Wandel replied, "I think the reasoning for the concerns for having on camera, there were some sensitive areas of information that we didn't want to have publicized."
Myers touched on the subtle difference between village trustee workshops and meetings. Both are open to the public as they are attended by a quorum of trustees, but workshops are supposed to be essentially discussion sessions. Meetings are where resolutions and laws are supposed to get voted on.
However, Fredonia's attorneys, the Webster Szanyi law firm of Buffalo, have opined that there is nothing in state law technically stopping trustees from voting on items during workshops. The trustees have proceeded to do so repeatedly, including at the most recent workshop.
Myers said, "It's easier to have free dialogue as a department head -- I'll speak for myself -- free dialogue on why I want to do something, or a pattern, or a problem I'm working through, it's more comfortable to have that conversation in a workshop setting. You know, where we're just talking, where we're spitting ideas."
Trustee Christine Cruz Keefe said it didn't matter to her if the workshops were not videotaped.
Trustee Ben Brauchler implied that committee-level meetings and department head meetings with the mayor ought to be off-camera. However, at a workshop, "if we're going to have the trustees here, the mayor and the department heads, then it's a public meeting, and we have to be open to the fact that if somebody wants to show up and record it, we record it. That's just how it has to be."
Mayor Michael Ferguson said that state law orders that the public can attend government meetings -- but the law does not mandate videotaping or public speaking.
Code Enforcement Officer Charles LaBarbera echoed Myers in stating that he believed village officials decided the workshops would no longer be videotaped.
The Fredonia Public Access channel broadcasts village board meetings and workshops live on TV, and the video feed is streamed on its YouTube channel online, where it is retained for future viewing.
Brauchler said, "We could discuss with our public access people just removing that from the schedule of official things. But If they still want to do it, we can't stop them from doing it. I don't mind saying officially we're not gonna broadcast it, but it can still be broadcast."
Ferguson stated that as Fredonia Public Access is funded by the village government, it can order the channel to stop broadcasting workshops if it wants to. Brauchler pointed out that any private citizen would still be able to film the workshops.
No decision on future Fredonia Public Access broadcasting of the workshops was made -- at least not publicly. The discussion on the matter ended after Ferguson called for an executive session.
The next scheduled trustees workshop is for noon on Monday.