From Channel 24 (FINALLY), here's video footage of July's Common Council meeting from beginning to end (runtime: aprox. 1:16 min).



We're in the process of creating a special section of HatCityBLOG which will be devoted to the archives of Danbury Live, D-TV, and the complete HatCityBLOG video/audio library dating back to July 2005. As you can imagine, this will be a very difficult project and will probably be a work in progress for some time (there's hundreds of hours of footage to process) but we feel that it's important that you see you're elected officials in action BEFORE video footage was made available to the public...the difference in quite striking.

Finally, when you watch this footage, PLEASE keep one thing in mind. 99.9 percent of the events you see during a Common Council meeting is just for show. Most of the stuff you see is already decided upon during the Republican and Democratic caucus (i.e., how quickly things are referred to an ad-hoc committee, items on consent). Although this meeting on Channel 24 is a good step, it's far from the complete vision that was requested some time ago. Remember, what was asked is that ALL local government meetings be televised (and who gives a rats ass if it's live or not, just as long as it's recorded and played on Channel 24).

In other words, in terms of things that happen Common Council, the AD-HOC committee meetings MUST be videotaped and hopefully the crew at Danbury Live will pick up the slack where City Hall is still dropping the ball. Watch what goes on in Ad-Hoc, and you'll get a better understanding on the inner workings of the city and why local politics is a complete joke.

...and don't get me started on the board of education (NEWSFLASH: education probably gets the biggest slice of city's budget so it might be in your best interest to know how your taxpayer's money is being used).

Note to Ted: It would help if you don't WALK AWAY FROM THE CAMERA when doing a live broadcast. When people are at home watching the program and the camera is pointed to the wrong person OR THE FLOOR when someone speaks, it gives the impression that you're not taking the job seriously.

If you need help, I know of a couple of kids enrolled in the Audio/Video at Danbury High who can give you some pointers (but, you'll have to pick them up from school as they're too young to drive).