SCHENECTADY Councilman angry about camera Allen shouts at videographer over taping of meeting BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com
An outspoken city resident has taken the Schenectady City Council where it feared to tread: television. But the council isn’t going quietly. After a SACC-TV videographer recorded Monday’s committee meeting for broadcast on the city’s public access television station, Councilman Joseph Allen shouted at him and told him he had no authority to record anything. In a five-minute exchange that had Allen yelling at nearly every council member in the room, Allen made it clear that he will fi ght tooth and nail to stop SACC from broadcasting the committee meetings. The outburst occurred as soon as the SACC camera was turned off at the end of the meeting. “Who authorized you to do this?” Allen demanded, his voice rising as SACC’s young videographer attempted to explain that station manager Todd Wilson called him and told him to record the meeting. “Who is this Todd?” Allen shouted. “He has no authority here!” Other council members tried to calm Allen down, telling him that anyone has the right to record a public meeting. But Allen persisted. “Pat Zollinger can’t do this!” he yelled. Zollinger, who taped the meetings with her own equipment last year, hired SACC-TV to take on the job Monday because the station has better equipment and can edit the tapes more easily. When she was taping the meetings, she spent hours trying to craft an audible product using her camera. SACC-TV charges $50 per hour for its service, which means Zollinger is on the hook for $200 to $300 a month. But she said broadcasting the committee meetings is worth the expense. “They should be shown because people can’t get down here,” she said. “But this is what people should see.” The 5:30 p.m. committee meetings generally conflict with residents’ work schedules and dinner times but offer more information than the 7 p.m. voting sessions. At the committee meetings, council members debate issues, hear detailed reports from a variety of experts and often propose new ideas or controversial solutions to problems. At the voting session, council members usually approve the entire packet of resolutions with one vote and rarely discuss anything. The voting session is televised live, and various council members have proposed broadcasting the committee meetings as well, but most of the council has opposed the idea. Zollinger said she was no longer willing to wait for them to change their minds. “Enough of this nonsense,” she said. But Allen wants to find some way to kick the videographers out. “Just because you want it done doesn’t mean they can do it,” he told Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard, who was one of many council members to tell Allen that SACC-TV could videotape the meeting. “It’s a public meeting,” Blanchard said. Councilwoman Denise Brucker added, “Channel 10, channel 13 come in all the time.” Allen said SACC-TV was different. Unlike the news stations, which broadcast a 30-second clip of a meeting, SACC-TV would show the entire meeting, which can range from 90 minutes to three hours. “I object, I strongly object,” he said. “I don’t think Pat Zollinger has the authority to record our meetings. I’m going to investigate this.” Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said Allen could only remove the videographer if he were disrupting the meeting. However, he offered this advice while Allen was shouting down three council members at once, and it’s not clear whether Allen heard him.
It sounds to me that Mr Allen doesn't want the residents to know what's said at the meetings or how the council members vote on proposed legislation. What's he trying to hide??
Zollinger said she was no longer willing to wait for them to change their minds. “Enough of this nonsense,” she said.
Good job Pat. And Kathleen Moore did and outstanding job of reporting.
This really got me thinking. (that is not always a good thing). Does anyone think it would be beneficial to have the Rotterdam town planning board meetings filmed?
The town planning board meetings are where the good and bad projects get the approval to continue so maybe filming the meetings would be a very good idea.
I disagree MT---I think it is good for residents to pay for it,,,even if it is one resident at a time temporarily.....that is what responsible residents do....I just hope others will step up....even if it is the businesses that each chip in $$ for each months taping......how about the rotary clubs......they are into making connections---it would behoove them to connect with the planning committees of each municipality.....JMHO....
As for Mr. Allen--maybe he missed his dinner or maybe he forgot that he serves at the pleasure of the taxpayers.....by his choice......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
The residents should not have to pay for it. Doing so sets a bad precedent.
I don't think it sets a bad precedent. And I'm sure Pat has supporters that will help with the cost. I think it was an excellent strategic move on Pat's part.
With all Democratic members, and a Democratic mayor, there usually isn’t a whole lot of dissension in the ranks of the Schenectady city council. But Joe Allen, bless his heart, can be relied on to provide some excitement from time to time. The past week has been one of those times, as Allen has differed with his colleagues on a couple of issues: affirmative action and videotaping of city council committee meetings. As the sole black on the council, Allen has some strong feelings about affirmative action, and deserves at least to be listened to. But his insistence that the city needs to have its own affirmative action officer rather than contract with the county for one, as it has been doing for the past year, seems wrongheaded. The problem with the current arrangement is not that the affirmative action officer is employed by the county and has a countywide mandate; this saves money and can lead to even more opportunities for minorities. Nor was it the affirmative action officer herself, Tracey Chance, who left in March. She was bright, capable and accomplished more than any of her predecessors did when it was a city-only position (although Allen, rightly, wanted her to place more emphasis on finding jobs for minority city residents). The problem was that there were no clear reporting or communication requirements — to the point that when Chance left she informed county officials but never thought to tell those at the city. This can and should be remedied before the council approves a new contract with the county. And Mayor Stratton promises that it will be. But if Allen is a little wrong on this issue, he is dead wrong about videotaping, over which he pitched a fit at a committee meeting Monday night. We don’t understand his objection to these meetings being taped by members of the public or his belief that the city council can somehow stop it. They are public meetings and they are where most of the issues the council later votes on are discussed and debated, if not actually decided. Allen was particularly outraged that citizen-activist Pat Zollinger, without council authorization, is paying Channel 16 (out of her own pocket) to tape the meetings for later airing. But Zollinger actually deserves credit, not criticism, for this public service — which she has been forced to undertake only because the city council has failed to approve and pay for professional broadcasting of committee meetings, as it has for regular council meetings. It should.
Pat Z had to find a way to fund the filming of the meetings because if she waited for the city it would never happen as I think the city/county councils would like nothing better than to keep us all in the dark.
I think the move was to embarrass the committee men/women. I predict that the city will take over the tapings. Pat has forced their hand and now it leaves them no choice but to continue the tapings. They have to save face not. Especially after the Joe Allen fiasco!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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