A new town policy for recording public meetings was challenged Tuesday by a man accustomed to having Frank Loda’s camera in his face.
“I read your rules about video taping and I prefer not to be videotaped,” said former First Selectman Robert J. Koskelowski during the public comment session at the Board of Selectman meeting Tuesday.
Koskelowski — who battled with Loda about videotaping for years — questioned the ambiguity the new rules have about taping members of the public.
At that same meeting, First Selectman Paul Roy suggested the town take another look at the rules, which were adopted in April.
But it was Loda’s own complaints, in part, that prompted Roy to reconsider the new policy.
“I’m just thinking maybe we should try to work something out so everyone is in agreement,” Roy said Tuesday.
The Rules
In April, the Board of Selectmen adopted a set of rules about recording town meetings.
The issue was a hot topic in town for years, after Loda challenged previous guidelines and filed — and won — a series of Freedom of Information complaints against the town and Koskelowski.
But after the meeting in April, Loda complained the policy left out two important sentences suggested by the FOI Commission.
They are:
1. Those speaking at public meetings have no right to privacy and should expect the possibility of being recorded.
2. There are no restrictions on the use of the recorded material.
Loda wanted both points spelled out in the new rules — because both have been bones of contention when Seymour violated FOI rules in the past.
But town leaders said the two points were implicit in the new rules.
Not so, Koskelowski claimed in his public comments. His discussion on the topic begins 57 seconds into the video above. The video was taken by Loda during the meeting Tuesday.
(To see more videos from Loda, visit his YouTube page here, or a library of past videos at the Seymour Democratic Town Committee’s website here.)
Frustration
Looking at the rules again is just “spinning our wheels,” said Selectman W. Kurt Miller.
“Here we are the first meeting out of the box and we already have a problem,” Miller said. “I just don’t want to see any more legal fees spent on this.”
Selectman John Conroy suggested spending time on more important issues, such as developing a capital improvement plan or negotiating better contracts with union employees in town.
“You’ve got rules, they’re in place, they haven’t been challenged,” Conroy said.
The document below is the rules the Board of Selectmen passed in April.