Blog: Your Township Government In Action
Middletown Open Government (MOG) is a New Jersey based non-partisan community group whose mission is to foster transparency in the government of Middletown Township starting with broadcasting Township meetings, including those of Township Committee, Library Bord and Sewerage Authority.
MOG was formed due to a local government that would not inform the public on the activities taking place within the government. When government leaders provided every excuse to not video record meetings, MOG pooled resources and purchased a video recorder and had other equipment donated.
Recordings have been made for a year now and this venue has been made available to inform the public. A link will be provided to access the video recording. Another link will be provided to access the agenda, resolutions and ordinances for that meeting. The intention is to make our local government more accessible.
The first link is to the video of the reorganization meeting that took place on January 6.
Many ordinances were introduced during this meeting. Usually, this meeting is solely dedicated to the swearing in of newly elected Township Committee people, the selection of mayor from among the Committee members and the appointments to various boards and commissions.
These ordinances, along with the resolutions and agenda can be found at this link.
Thank you for showing an interest in your local government.
Gordon York
8:21 pm on Sunday, February 10, 2013
So sad that the TC can't or won't do this. Instead they run the same old stuff on the township cable access channels.
Old School
5:09 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013
Where are the videos of the Board of Ed. That's where 2/3 of our hard earned tax dollars go, not the Township or the Library or the Sewage Authority. Why are those meeting not recorded? Isn's it time to hold the Board of Ed accountable for $100+ million they spend EVERY year or does that not fit into the political agenda of the MOG?
Can someone please explain this to me?
Pilgrim
5:27 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013
Old School, record the meetings and forward to Middletown Open Government and ask that they be posted. Or, ask the Board of Education (BoE) to record and post its meetings. The BoE has access to a studio for production and may be able to provided the personnel (students) who could get extra credit for producing meetings on a regular basis. I hope your comparison wasn't a red herring to distract from the fact that there is money available for the production of Township Committee meetings from Comcast -- check the municipal code if you doubt that this is true.
Gary Junstrom
8:32 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013
What is the obsession with Democrats looking for ways to spend money? And Old School? You know why these people don't want to examine the two thirds of our property taxes that go to the schools? Because the teacher's union will stop writing checks to Democrats at election time.
Linda Baum
5:50 pm on Monday, March 18, 2013
There are a limited number of volunteers to do the work of recording, currently only one camera, and many conflicts with regard to meeting and individual schedules. Coverage will be expanded as MOG resources allow. I agree it would be good to have the Board of Ed meetings recorded. Note that currently that BoE audio records its own meetings and could post the audio recordings online if they chose to. The BoE also has the capacity to video record its own meetings -- they already have the equipment and the manpower. Perhaps, in lieu of relying on private citizens to do the work, it would make more sense for residents to encourage the BoE to video record its own meetings. The Board could then post the videos online or request that the Township televise them. Note that the broadcasting equipment is in Town Hall, so the decision to televise still rests with the Township, but the BoE might be more successful than a private group at getting TV time.
Gordon York
1:51 pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
A group of people get together and record as many township meetings that they can. They provide these meetings to you, free of charge. Visit the townships television page on the website:
http://www.middletownnj.org/content/tvstation.html
The first paragraph:
Middletown Township maintains a municipal access television station that is viewable 24/7 on Comcast Channel 20 and Verizon FiOs Chanel 26.
Then look at the schedule. I think there might be room for the meetings that were recorded, free of charge, at no cost to you, gratis, to run.
What is your problem again??
Old School
6:22 pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Pilgrim and Gordon,
I am not disagreeing with filming the meetings, but I have a MAJOR problem with MOG blatently overlooking the BOE meetings. TWO THIRDS (2/3) of our hard earned money goes to there, but MOG seems to not care to record those meetings or criticize them on how they spend thier money.
I hope the people of Middletown realize the MOG is just an extension of a politicol faction that only care about furthering their agenda and not about open government.
Pilgrim,
Please answer this question directly- Why does MOG not record the BOE meeting since they spend the most, by far, of the taxes collected in Middletown? Isn't it important for the people to know where the $100+ MILLION goes EVERY YEAR???
Old School
6:25 pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Pilgrim,
Why should I record the BOE meetings? The MOG collected money to buy the camera that is supposed to film the meetings. Not me!
Nice try
Ivan Putski
8:26 pm on Monday, March 18, 2013
Who cares. Nothing will change. Your taxes will go up. At least they will go up less with the republicans. Can you imagine what disgraceful "social" issues the democrats would waste our tax money on?