Elgin council members differ on having budget meetings off-camera
The Elgin City Council is scheduled to have three special meetings about the city's budget that will not be video-recorded, which one council member is blasting as lack of transparency but others say leads to more productive discussions.
The meetings, which were scheduled late last week, are at 9 a.m. on Saturdays, Aug. 12, Sept. 16 and Oct. 7, at the Hemmens Cultural Center, which lacks video equipment. Meetings in the council chambers at city hall are streamed online, broadcast on local TV and stored for viewing on the city's website.
Councilman Rich Dunne said the budget is too important a topic to not record.
"The public has a right to deal with this and a right to download them afterward," he said.
But Councilwoman Carol Rauschenberger said there's value in having more relaxed conversations in an informal setting where no final decisions are made.
"It fosters better communication," she said. Otherwise, "people feel like they are talking to the camera instead of at each other."
City Manager Rick Kozal said the three meetings are in response to requests from city council members who want to understand better how the budget operates. It's most effective to do that in a setting more relaxed than the council chambers, he said.
"These meetings are not to discuss proposals in the 2018 budget. They are simply a deep dive into the components of the city's $300 million budget," he said, adding the public always can attend the meetings.
The special meetings also will give the council a chance to give suggestions earlier in the budget process, Rauschenberger said. The city's fiscal year begins Jan. 1."Can we cut garbage collection in half? Can we do away with leaf pick up?" she said. "These are the kinds of things that are really just questions as opposed to, 'We are doing this.'"
Councilwoman Rose Martinez agreed, saying it's not about keeping discussions hidden but having more productive ones.
"You don't feel so dumb like when you are asking a question (on camera)," she said.
Under former City Manager Sean Stegall, the city council used to have quarterly off-site special meetings - typically at Hawthorne Hill Nature Center - that addressed a variety of topics, including budget updates, strategic planning, code enforcement and police initiatives.
That changed two years ago, after Councilwoman Tish Powell raised the issue saying she'd been told by residents that such meetings should be video-recorded.
Kozal, who took over in August 2016, changed course when he scheduled a special meeting in July at the Hemmens, when the council was introduced to a new diversity consultant. That choice made sense given the topic, but the budget is a different matter, Dunne said.
Powell said the July meeting reminded her of the benefits of having off-camera discussions, which also leads staff members to be more relaxed. "I'm a little torn about it in terms of whether or not it makes sense (not to videotape)," Powell said.
Mayor David Kaptain said he's OK with either choice. Meeting at the Hemmens is "a more open process than (discussions) in executive session, but it's not the same as being in public at the council meeting. It's kind of a hybrid."