Editorials

We are watching

An important part of what we do each day is to hold elected bodies accountable. To that end, a lot of what we do depends on transparency.

There are state statutes in place that clearly define the rules that town, city and school boards and committees need to follow. Meetings need to be warned in advance; minutes of the meeting need to be kept and posted; discussions need to be held in public.

As the eyes and ears of the public, journalists require access to public meetings. If they are unable to attend, reporters will often consult recordings or public access recordings of public meetings, or they read through the minutes of the meetings after they are posted. Many times, reporters will have follow-up questions that members of the public, often too timid to ask about, won’t necessarily ask.

In many ways, small-town newspaper reporters are professional meeting-goers. In any given week, our reporters are sitting through (live or recorded) hours of meetings in order to suss out news stories. (A good reporter can pull two or three story ideas out of the most tedious, boring meeting out there.)

Since COVID-19 has pushed most meeting onto an online format — usually Zoom — reporters are tuning in and watching just like everyone else. And as we have seen in high-profile public meetings, like the discussion of defunding the police department in Montpelier and the ongoing Rutland High School mascot discussion – not everyone on the call is a resident. Officials moderating these meetings are attempting to be accommodating, but they often are giving precedence in the local discussion to locals.

In many ways, Zoom has become a valuable tool in transparency. And it makes “attending” public meetings far more accessible and convenient. How great is it as a citizen to join a meeting from a laptop while sitting next to the woodstove?

And yet, Zoom (and other platforms like Zoom) are also providing us with an inside glimpse into the personal space and lives of public officials. It is curious and intriguing where individuals choose to set up their camera, what the backdrop might be. Quite famously now, a select board chairman in one town, known to be a staunch Republican, sits with his shotguns, hunting rifles and a deer head behind him on the wall. Others, trying to be nondescript, will “broadcast” from the kitchen table, giving participants a glimpse at color choices for cupboards and wallpaper.

As journalists covering meetings, we see a lot. And we are paid observers; it is our job to pay attention — whether it is during a meeting in a room full of people or on a Zoom call — to what is happening during the meeting: who is fidgeting during certain discussions, or taking copious notes; who is making eye contact with who during debates; who is looking energized that their case is being made for them. Body language and unspoken action speak volumes to individuals who are paying attention.

So it has been dismaying to us that during some of the most recent high-profile discussions in our communities, our reporters (and really anyone who is paying attention) have noticed more subversive conversations taking place.

It is not hard to watch a person in one Zoom panel pick up their cellphone, type a text and then put down their phone … only to have another board member in another Zoom panel pick up their phone and smirk.

Politics is definitely about sniping and posturing. But we would remind public officials that decorum matters. Let this be a warning: How you act during a meeting is being watched (and recorded these days) and that digital trail of texts and emails are privy to public records requests and hard questions from observant reporters. And if push comes to shove, we will happily ask for them.

As watchdogs of public servants, know that we are watching. And we are not really impressed with what we are seeing. As the referee says before the match, “Let’s keep it clean.”

This editorial first appeared in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus on Oct. 21.

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