Viewers may now see the entire July 15 City Council meeting on YouTube.
Meanwhile, the city's own link to PCTV Comcast 96/Verizon 34 has a schedule with the most recent council meeting on May 13 and its Video Gallery has a council meeting from April 9, 2012.
Lamar David Mackson, still listed as chairman of the Plainfield Cable Television Advisory Board on his LinkedIn page, taped the July 15 meeting and is the producer of several videos on the local station. The PCTVAB is defunct, all memberships having expired.
What is going on here? Hard to say. But it points to a need for clarification of roles and policies regarding the local television station. On the city's web site, it is a division under Administration & Finance, related to Information Technology. At present, there appears to be a great deal more autonomy than is normal in municipal bureaucracy. In 2010, the city sought Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for videography services (see Plaintalker post here). What is the process whereby Mackson shifted from an advisory role to a hands-on production role? Was he hired under the title Media Technician 1?
If having the council meeting on YouTube was officially sanctioned, shouldn't there be a link at least on the city web site as seen here? So far, its appearance on YouTube has been publicized on social media such as Facebook, as have other PCTV productions. Personally, I felt it was intrusive to have a PCTV link posted on my Facebook timeline and I don't especially like being tagged with PCTV links. Should any city division be allowed to use social media at will or should there be some guidelines?
These are all questions that have occurred to me and perhaps they all have simple answers. If not, maybe there are some tasks indicated for the next administration. The city now collects franchise money from two entities and the amount has increased from 2 to 4 percent of revenues, so there is a fiduciary aspect. Both franchises need to be tracked for renewal, a function of the PCTVAB, which is currently not active. Use of social media is an evolving issue for many institutions, including media and government. So this is really not about Lamar Mackson, it is about the city's need to communicate with the community and best practices for doing so.
Your comments are welcome.
--Bernice
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Bernice, thank you for directing my attention to the U-tube video on the 7/15/13 Council meeting. I had not paid attention at the time to the prayer which I object to as being needed but accept since for a long period of time it has been non-sectarian. I believe what I heard on the video was different and certainly some of the phraseology can not be considered non sectarian. If so I find it to be objectionable and not in the spirit of court findings. I would hope the Council President will apologize and make sure that there is no repetition.
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