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Politics & Government

Trustees Approve Videotaping Board Meetings

Broadcasts will be done through the village website.

Libertyville residents will soon have the opportunity to view, as well as hear, their village board at work without making the trip to Village Hall.

On Tuesday night, trustees approved a report by the Special Projects Committee to approve spending $1,000 to purchase a fixed video camera that will be mounted on the back wall of the board’s chambers. Another private donation of $1,000 was received to wire and install an audio feed connecting the existing audio to the camera.

These videos will then air over the village’s recently-enhanced website.

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Trustee Jim Moran, who chairs the Special Projects Committee, said he was delighted with the board’s support of the project.

“Videotaping our board meetings means that more of the public will now have a chance to know what their elected officials are doing on their behalf. It provides a new transparency for our citizens that simply didn’t exist before,” he said.

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Moran and Assistant Village Administrator Kelly Amidei have been on the cutting edge of the village’s expanded communication efforts in recent months. Through the committee and using a private web developer, both have brought about a complete overhaul of the village website.

Then they pushed to implement audio coverage of all board meetings. Now, with this new action, the public will have a chance to not only hear but see the board in action for themselves twice a month.

“Some communities spend thousands of dollars a year hiring professional cable broadcasters to cover their meetings. We simply didn’t have the budget to do that, so this is more of a do-it-yourself volunteer effort, but we think it will be equally effective,” Moran said.

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