The Messenger Post had a good editorial urging Albany to pass a law explicitly allowing recording of open meetings. It would be really good to have this on the books, because although case law supports it, it’s not a state law yet.

A bill that would permit any meeting of a public body to be photographed, videotaped, broadcast or otherwise recorded has failed to pass the state Legislature in the past two sessions.

It would explicitly allow someone like, say, Jon Greenbaum, who got dragged out of Tuesday’s County Leg police state meeting for taking pictures, to take them. (Although, it seems anti-democratic in the first place to not allow a citizen to take pics at a public meeting.)

The MP Ed Board gets why this is so important:

Finally, it could make government more widely accessible to people who might be interested in the proceedings, but are unable to attend.

Efforts to open government doors establish the trust necessary to maintain a strong democracy. Open government is good government. Approving this bill will be another solid step in that process.

So what’s takin’ them so long, already?

The bill was introduced in 2006 and 2007 by Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, and passed the Assembly in both sessions, only to fizzle in the Senate.

This is why we need to flip the senate: the place where all good legislation goes to die.

[Update: Just noticed that local Assemblycritter Susan John is a sponsor of this. Well done.]

Related posts:

1. Public Defender meetings violate the State Open meeting law
2. Perinton GOP Invents Time Machine, Breaks Open Meetings Law?
3. BREAKING: GOP Attempts to Hijack Public Safety Committee Meeting
4. Activists Push Pittsford for Open Government
5. What the County GOP Thinks About Open, Bipartisan Government