Videotaping initiative gets another look, another vote

LEBANON - By some strange quirk of math and fate, 64 percent of Lebanites who went to the polls last June voted to have government meetings videotaped, and if the Nov. 5 referendum on videotaping government meetings is passed, 64 percent of Lebanon households will be footing the bill.

Corinna Cole

That’s because rather than use the $500 last June’s referendum requested toward the effort, selectmen found that the referendum was wrongly worded and substituted their own plan that radically altered the scope of the program envisioned by Corinna Cole who drafted the citizens petition.

Cole is not bitter about how selectmen declared her referendum illegal. On the contrary, she says any kind of referendum that moves transparency of government forward is a good thing.

“I was upset that selectmen did not support it as much as the people did, but it happened,” Cole said on Wednesday. “But this (referendum) will fulfill the objective, which I started, which is more transparency in government.”

Lebanon voters overwhelmingly endorsed Referendum 1 on last June’s ballot, 681-340, but soon after Selectmen Chair Karen Gerrish declared that the wording was illegal for the disbursal of town funds.

Selectmen then listened to several videotaping proposals before settling on the Metrocast option, which allows a 2 percent surcharge on the video portion of residents’ monthly Metrocast bill.

With the average monthly video portion hovering near $100, that could deliver about $3,000 every month into town coffers to pay for a quality video delivery system, including live feeds from a primary meeting venue, Metrocast officials have said.

Cole noted that if selectmen had supported her referendum question, videotaping of meetings would have already started, though with only $500 earmarked in her proposal, opinions differ on how comprehensive her coverage of government meetings would’ve been.

Last June’s referendum called for the videotaping of all government meetings, including Board of Selectmen, Budget Committee and Planning Board among others.

One of the major differences between the selectmen’s proposal being voted on next Tuesday and Cole’s referendum from last June is the funding mechanism. Hers would’ve been paid for with tax dollars. The new one is paid for by a surcharge on town residents’ Metrocast bills that is then disbursed to the town.

Any resident not using Metrocast as their TV cable access provider will not pay for the videotaping service, which is expected to be made available online.

In Lebanon, there are about 1,545 Metrocast subscribers, according to the cable company’s records. According to numbers from the Lebanon Post Office, the town has 2,427 delivery addresses, including street and PO boxes.

Cole said she uses Metrocast, herself, and doesn’t mind that she’ll be paying the freight for non-Metrocast users.

She also takes pride in the fact that her referendum got the videotaping ball rolling.

Selectman Ben Thompson said today that he understands how Cole might have felt disappointed that selectmen did not comply with the voters’ wishes but that representatives from the Maine Municipal Association told the board the referendum had been worded improperly and taxpayer funds could not be appropriated using the language of the referendum as she had drafted it.

He said it would be up to the voters of Lebanon whether they wanted to approve or disapprove the new referendum they’ll be voting on Tuesday.

Gerrish and Selectman Jason Cole did not reply to an email requesting comment on Wednesday.