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EDITORIAL: Tornquist admits he doesn’t want you to have access to City Council meetings

Editorial by Matt Marquardt –

Did city staff bamboozle the Mayor and City Council, or is Mason City just too good for YouTube?

Per a recommendation from city staff, the Mason City Council recently approved (5-1, John Lee against) the purchase of software called Granicus, for $2,625 upfront and $249 per month, to show and archive council meetings on the internet.

Nevermind that there is a service out there, used by millions, called YouTube.  It is free.  The President uses it.  Mitt Romney uses it.  So do Senators Harkin and Grassley.  The City of Clear Lake uses it, too.  In fact, YouTube is big on offering channels for government use and explains how to easily use their service.

In fact almost everything “city staff” (What is city staff?  Is that just Brent Trout or others?) wants to accomplish with Granicus can be done for free.  For years, there has been absolutely no need to print hard copies of the council packets that are typically hundreds of pages long and put them in binders.  PDF documents sent to an email account would have solved that for about $0.00.

But, our illustrious Mayor, Eric Bookmeyer, and his At-Large Councilman Scott Tornquist used the same word to describe the ground-breaking service at YouTube: “Hokey.”

“I’m not excited at all about putting city council meetings up on YouTube,” Tornquist pontificated.  “That’s not the image of Mason City government that I am interested in.”

Sorry to ruin your excitement, Scott, but City Council meetings, and a lot more, have been on YouTube for years, courtesy of NorthIowaToday.com.  You are one of the stars in those videos.

I did inquire with Clear Lake’s City Administrator Scott Flory.  They have been using YouTube for months.

First I asked him about “additional bandwidth” to upload the council meetings.  Brent Trout says the City would need $500 per month for more “bandwidth” in order to use YouTube.

“I do not believe that was an issue,” Flory said.

Flory had great things to say about YouTube.

“To the best of my knowledge YouTube has worked very well for us and has been cost-effective, with no security or other issues. We selected YouTube since several other cities are using it and they gave us good feedback about it,” he said. “We get good comments from the public about it. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but we didn’t think all the extra features some cities want we’re necessary for us for the money.

Tornquist is apparently cut from a different cloth.

“I’m the guy that’s pretty resistant to change,” Tornquist offered.  “Technology kinda scares me a little bit.”

Stunningly, Tornquist admitted that he wants city government hidden from the public.

“The majority of the community doesn’t have access to the council meetings.  To me, that may not be all bad,” Tornquist seethed.  “I will not ever be a person that supports YouTube.”

Umm.  OK Scott.

I’m not making this up.  Scott Tornquist really said all this, and it is ready for you to watch in the YouTube video below.  Thank you, YouTube.  Mayor Eric Bookmeyer can be heard in the video laughing, generally approving Tornquist’s admission.

Janet Solberg, perhaps equally stunning, asked if council meeting videos could be “copyrighted.”

Sorry Janet, but no, the public has a right to watch your shenanigans and hold you accountable.

Jean Marinos said that the council packets “bother” her, and have done so for years. She said she “hopes” her packet ends up “in the recycle” the next day.  It might be easier to read “War and Peace” than a council packet, but if Jean can do it and absorb it all in a day or two, more power to her.  I mean, I assume she reads the packet.  All the council does, right?

Oh, one last point.

Mayor Bookmeyer used YouTube when he was running for office.  See that video here.

Watch this short YouTube video:

httpv://youtu.be/eE8QP5-SoaU

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