Herrera Calls for Video Broadcasting of Village Budget Meetings

Ossining, NY — Ossining Village Trustee and Mayoral Candidate Omar J. Herrera requested to his colleagues the Village Board and Village Manager that public budget meetings be recorded and streamed for public access and review at last week’s September 26, 2018 work session. Village of Ossining budget meetings are public meetings between village department heads and the village board before the public hearing and final adoption.

“Village of Ossining residents have the right to watch and review every single decision relating to the municipal budget. The entire process is public and paid for by the taxpayers. Currently, the Village records and broadcasts the Village Board portion of these meetings, but does not record or broadcast the meetings with the department heads, despite the fact that these department heads have considerable influence on the budget process. These meetings are technically open to public attendance, but by not making them easily accessible to all residents, we have effectively shielded them from public scrutiny. We should have been streaming these meetings years ago. The public’s ability to observe the democratic process is critical for transparency and accountability. As an elected official, it is my job to help facilitate the public’s access to our decision making process, not obstruct it.”

Despite the majority of the board of trustees agreeing with this request, Mayor Victoria Gearity and Trustee Rika Levin, both up for re-election were against recording public budget meetings because, according to them, it will make the conversation between publically funded department heads less candid.

Trustee Omar Herrera declared his intention to stream future meetings on his government Facebook account if the Village does not accommodate his simple request using existing, available resources.

“We cannot just talk about open government; we also have to practice it. The Village of Ossining has gone to great lengths to make the public workings of our legislative and work sessions as well as our Planning and Zoning board meetings. Would it not make sense to video tape publicly noticed meetings to discuss our multi-million-dollar budget?” said John Codman, Village of Ossining Deputy Mayor.

“Village taxpayers need to know how their process starts and ends. It’s a public budget, publicly funded department heads and publicly elected officials. Why would anyone be against that?” said Christine Lorenz, an Ossining resident and taxpayer.

The meeting where this was discussed can be viewed here, beginning at 1:26: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCRh_tUoAiE&t=5142s