Council votes to end all broadcasts

A swift vote by the Cotulla City Council on Thursday evening, December 12, has put an end to both the live-stream and later online broadcasting of all its public meetings.

The council began its live stream each month during the coronavirus pandemic and when meetings were moved into the AB Alexander Convention Center from the former City Hall on Front Street. Meetings were broadcast online as they were taking place, and a video package was uploaded 12 hours later on the YouTube platform, linked from the city’s website, allowing viewers to replay portions of the government talks.

Technical difficulties hindered the live stream of the council’s first meeting in November at its new permanent home, the former Stockmens National Bank building on Front Street, which has been purchased and remodeled by the city with revenues from its hotel occupancy tax. All council meetings are held in the new chambers henceforth and have been rescheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month.

Last week’s council meeting was the first to be recorded successfully at the new council chambers but also the last, following the vote made on a motion by Councilor Mary Koraleski, seconded by Councilor Trish Garcia and supported by Councilor Manuel Rodriguez. Councilors Gilbert Ayala and Alejandro Garcia were absent.

Koraleski said she believes the public address portion of the regular council meetings has given a number of local residents a political platform from which to make biased, misleading or inflammatory statements.

Councilors are prevented by law from responding to public comments made during the open forum portion of their meetings.

“It’s become very political,” Councilor Koraleski later said of the open forum that has been broadcast as part of the council’s live stream footage and the later online video package. “We have had people come up here and spew lies and accusations, and we are unable to respond to them. Anyone has been able to come up here, on camera, and say whatever they like. Well, we are sick and tired of being called liars and thieves.

“What does the public think of this, when we sit here in silence and can’t respond to these accusations?” Koraleski said in an interview after the meeting. “Their impression must be that we are just sitting here and taking it. The public doesn’t know that we can’t respond.”

Among those to address the council at several of its meetings over the past year is Billy Alvarado, who recently moved to Cotulla and has used the public forum to bring attention to alleged failures by the council to take action on government mismanagement. Alvarado has also told councilors at their meetings that he believes they should be voted out of office.

“Why would you commit political suicide?” Alvarado asked the council at last week’s meeting on the topic of ending the video broadcast. He added that he believes councilors have an obligation to demonstrate government transparency and that he believes ending the broadcasts signals to the public that councilors do not want their constituents to witness the government process.

“We want the citizens to come,” Koraleski said in a brief address on camera during the meeting. “We work for them. We want them to know that we cannot address them.”

“Some people can’t come to the meetings,” Alvarado said.

Mayor Sandra Luna said after Thursday’s vote that the decision applies to the live stream as well as the recording and later broadcasting of the complete council meeting online, as councilors had not differentiated between the two.

Koraleski said after the meeting that she does not believe City Hall may edit the council meeting video in order to broadcast only the portions in which councilors discuss posted agenda items.

“It’s either all of it or none of it,” the councilor said. “We can’t cut out the opening section where people make statements that we can’t respond to. The public forum has become a place for people with political agendas to use the free camera to say all kinds of things that are intended to stir up the public against us.”