Lynn Thomas et al: Making County Delegation meetings accessible for all

To The Daily Sun,

We are members of the public who try to keep ourselves informed about Belknap County matters, including important issues such as Gunstock, the County Nursing Home, the county budget, etc. That means attending meetings in person, attending remotely via YouTube, or sometimes watching the archived video or reading the meeting minutes. Unfortunately, although the sound system currently in place is an improvement over the previous system, it still leaves much to be desired. In addition, some of the practices in place at County Delegation meetings exacerbate the problems.

Starting with meeting minutes, the county delegation consistently violates the requirement that minutes be available promptly: “Minutes must be kept of all public meetings, and must be available to the public upon request within five business days after the close of the meeting.” RSA 91-A:2. That needs to be corrected.

With regard to both archived videos and live-streaming of meetings on YouTube, every effort should be made to have closed captions available. Those of you with good hearing may not understand that for the hearing impaired, it is not simply a matter of turning up the volume. We may hear the sounds fine, but cannot make out the words. Closed captions are now frequently and perhaps typically available on Zoom, and increasingly on YouTube as well. Please provide that capability.

During attendance at live meetings, we frequently cannot follow what transpires for a number of reasons. First, the microphones are shared rather than having a microphone for each representative. To address that problem, we request that the county purchase additional microphones so that they do not need to be passed from one delegation member to another. The second problem with microphones involves representatives either not using a microphone at all, or not speaking into it. Although a few delegation members enunciate clearly, many do not, and the combination of mumbling and lack of amplification means their words are indecipherable.

It is also noted that someone watching and listening to the meeting via live-stream hears microphone-enhanced typing by Rep. Barbara Comtois as she takes minutes. The typing noises often drown out the person speaking.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are frequent instances where no roll call votes are taken. It was quite shocking, for example, to have the budget debated recently, with crucial votes on its various parts, and to have no roll call votes. Assuming that all of the delegation members stand behind their votes, they should be willing to have their votes recorded so that their constituents know where they stand. Failure to have roll call votes is equivalent to the delegation operating in secret. A roll call is essential for all issues, except the most mundane (such as a motion to accept the minutes or to adjourn).

Many of these listed problems involve transparency, and others involve simple courtesy. We request that the delegation and the county address these problems and take whatever actions are feasible to resolve them.

Mo Baxley

Johnna Davis

Catharine Farkas

Marcia Hayward

Lucinda Hope

Don House

Lois Kessin

Ruth Larson

Reva Tankle

Lynn Thomas

Debbie Walker

Belknap County