By nicole c. vaccaro
Staff Writer
MILLTOWN — Russ Eindbinder, co-chairman of the borough’s Local Access Channel Committee, asked officials during Monday night’s Borough Council meeting to consider airing their sessions live.
"Residents have approached me asking why we don’t broadcast the meetings the same night rather than tape them for a later date," Eindbinder said.
"And to be honest, I couldn’t give them a good reason."
Eindbinder explained that there is no editing done on the tapes by way of an existing resolution governing the taping of broadcasts.
"Basically it would be no different from the way it is now, other than the meetings airing on time," he added. "And if there is a problem of any kind, there is a shut-off switch that will terminate the broadcast immediately."
The council expressed only two concerns over Eindbinder’s proposal. The first concerned whether there would be an increase in attendance if a hot topic were on the agenda, and the second was in reference to a fear of "grandstanding."
"The answer is simple," Eindbinder said. "If going live causes any problems, we’ll just stop it and go back to distributing the taped version."
That was enough to convince the council, as they decided to go ahead with the live broadcast idea.
Before that, however, council members need to introduce an amendment to the resolution regarding taping of broadcasts, as it does not currently allow live feed.
The motion will be heard at the Aug. 28 meeting.