Media access motion dies at county bench
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NO ACTION ON PROPOSAL TO LIVE-STREAM COMMISSIONERS’ MEETINGS
A proposal that La Salle County commissioners allow their meetings to be recorded or establish an area in their courtroom reserved for the media failed Monday, May 22, when none of the elected officials supported it.
Failure of the proposal this week also meant that La Salle County will not revive its pandemic-era policy of live-streaming commissioners’ court meetings on YouTube or other platform for public viewing.
As placed before commissioners this week, the proposal would have required anyone making recordings or photographs of the meetings to remain at the rear of the courtroom, behind the public benches. The proposal did not specify whether the reserved area was for use by all representatives of the media or only those with recording devices. It also did not specify whether all representatives of the media would be required to remain in the designated area.
Commissioners were silent when asked to voice an opinion on the proposal, although a motion had been offered by Comm. Raul Ayala.
“With no action taken, we cannot go back live on YouTube,” County Judge Leodoro Martinez III said at Monday’s meeting. “Do you understand that?”
Commissioners did not reply.
The county judge has not indicated whether the proposal will be returned to the agenda for discussion in either its present or an alternate form at a later date.