You know, I'm pretty hard on the guys at the News-Times and for good resason, they simply do not cover what's going on in local government. Now every once in a while, the planets line up in a straight line and those guys step up to the plate and hit the nail on the head.

Today is one of those days.

Now as long as I can remember, people have demanded that the local government meetings at City Hall be broadcasted on Public Access television. Since surrounding towns are able to get their meetings on the air, it seems only fair that like the largest city in the area would be able to do the same but unfortunately, this is not the case.

Citing that airing the broadcasts would be too expensive, Boughton was refused to spend the money nessacary to have the meetings on television although (according to the mayor), the costs would be 60,000. Now this number seems high since I tape several meetings, volenteered at Comcast Cable, and have a basic idea on what it would take to record a meeting (at the VERY least, one or two stationary cameras and videotape...now rememeber, I said the VERY least). Also, there was a time when meetings were on cable on cable so the technically, City Hall is still wired up for broadcasting. Updating the required equipment should be a snap (cameras, videotape).

Boughton claims that braodcasting the meetings would be too expensive yet has no problem coughing up the cash for a proposed doggie park so his pets can have a place to hang out. Now personally, I think knowing what's going on at City Hall is more imporatant than having a place for dogs to take a dump ad it seems like the editors at the News-Times echo my opinion.

Danbury Republicans are using their majority power in city government to keep public meetings off cable television.

Democrats did the same thing when they held the majority in city government, but that doesn't make it right.

The Comcast cable system that serves Danbury, Bethel and Ridgefield has a government channel reserved for the televising of meetings.

Bethel and Ridgefield put their meetings on cable. Danbury does not.

Joseph Cavo, the president of the Common Council, promised in July that a committee meeting would be called to consider the televising of Danbury government meetings.

He has yet to schedule a meeting, using his power to block public discussion of the televising of government meetings.

Cavo, a Republican, opposes the televising of meetings. He says it would be too expensive.

Mayor Mark Boughton, a Republican, has also opposed the televising of meetings -- also citing the expense, which he estimates at $60,000 a year.

Why don't these Republican leaders want the taxpayers of Danbury to watch government meetings on television?

There can be only one answer -- they don't want a larger audience to know what goes on at public meetings.

Danbury spends money on all sorts of things, and Cavo and the mayor find money in the budget for their pet projects. So there is money available for the televising of public meetings.

Other municipalities manage to televise their government meetings for much less than $60,000 a year. But even if that is a realistic estimate of what it will cost, Danbury can afford it.

In recent years, apathy has grown in Danbury. Too many voters don't know what's going on in city government. That is not healthy for the future of the city.

Elected officials shouldn't be afraid of the voters seeing what they are doing. Contrast the attitude of Boughton and Cavo to the attitude of Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi on the televising of government meetings:

"We're pretty happy with it," he said. "A lot of people in Ridgefield commute, and they don't want to get home at 6:30 p.m. and go out for a two-hour meeting."

This is not a complicated process. City Hall is wired for the televising of meetings. All that's really needed is a commitment by elected officials to televise them.

Stonewalling like this from the Republicans makes you wonder if they are hiding something.

Again, please watch this video clip and listen closely to the August Common Council local committee report as well as Lynn Waller's comments (note: Waller is frequent defender of the mayor).

Now, since this clip first aired, I have noticed that the News-Times is attempting to report on more local political issues so I hope that this trend continues. I wish I can say that there has been a change at City Hall but it's still business as usual.