Dallas City Council to Stop Broadcasting Public Comment Sessions

City Hall meetings are broadcast over television and radio and archived on the city hall web site. Until recently, you could hear the entire meeting, unedited. Now, you will no longer get to hear the public comment sessions unless you can take time off from work and spend your day at city hall. It appears that the public comment sessions will not even be available online in the archives.

The opportunity for regular folks to speak to the city council is important, so it's a good thing the Dallas City Council was unable to stop the public comment sessions completely, as they tried to earlier this year. Hearing what those regular folks have to say to the council is also important, since they can bring to light things happening in other parts of the city that we might not otherwise be aware of. At the very least, the recordings of the public comment sessions should be easily available to the general public. Am I alone in thinking the opportunity for popular participation in local politics is a good thing?

Source: Dallas Morning News, "Dallas City Council cuts public-comment sessions from meeting broadcasts", 20 Nov 2008