The Town of North Hempstead posted meeting transcripts from January to September of this year online and intends to post more as they become available, town officials announced on Monday.
Before the move, transcribed minutes from the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Town Board could only be received through the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. The town clerk’s office and town attorney fulfilled these requests.
“I am very pleased with this new initiative to make board meeting transcripts more easily available to the public,” Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said in a statement. “Accessing public information shouldn’t require jumping through hoops.”
Carole Trottere, a spokeswoman for the Town of North Hempstead, said officials decided to post the transcripts now rather than earlier because the town did not know if its website had the storage capacity.
“But now we do,” Trottere said.
So far, 11 Town Board meeting minutes are available online and 16 Board of Zoning Appeals transcripts from Jan. 11 to Oct. 11 have been posted.
Town officials described this as part of a larger initiative by Bosworth to make town government more open and transparent.
One example Trottere noted was OpenGov, which posts information about service requests, payments the town makes to vendors and other financial information.
Trottere also noted that the public meetings are live-streamed and that public comment was moved to the beginning of meetings from the end so people could have more chances to speak.
“It’s just another step in the process,” Trottere said. “Since Judi [Bosworth] came into office, we’ve been adding information into the website every year.”
The official stenographer contracted by the town will still need to transcribe the minutes first, which usually takes six to eight weeks, according to the town clerk’s office.
These minutes will go online as the clerk’s office gets them.
“Increasing the public’s access to this important information is yet another example of how we can make our town government more transparent than ever,” town Clerk Wayne Wink said in a statement.
At this time, the town does not intend to post transcripts before January.
