Lincolnshire may put meeting videos online

Charting relatively new ground in cyberspace, Lincolnshire officials are considering offering video recordings of village board meetings on the town's Web site.

If trustees approve the move next month, the board would be among the first in the area to put such videos online.

Lincolnshire already airs its Monday-night village meetings live on local cable television, and those sessions are rebroadcast later in the week. Audio and video recordings of meetings are available for purchase, too.

Adding videos of meetings to the town's Web site, www. village.lincolnshire.il.us, would be another way for officials to communicate with the public, Deputy Village Manager Carol Marshall said.

The leader of a Chicago-based government watchdog group celebrated the proposal.

"I think it's fabulous," said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "It allows people who have got busy schedules, who may be working multiple jobs, to tune in at their convenience and follow the issues that concern them. And it allows the voters to hold elected officials accountable."

Lincolnshire's village board meetings wouldn't be the only sessions available on the Internet, Marshall said. Meetings of the committee of the whole, park board, zoning board and architectural review board also would be downloadable, she said.

Mundelein, Winnetka and Glenview are among the few area towns offering videos of meetings online. Gurnee posts sound recordings of village board meetings on its Web site, but not video recordings.

For more information, read Thursday's Daily Herald or revisit www.dailyherald.com.