Destroying public audio recordings a crime against transparency

Recording and publishing the audio of board meetings is an essential public good. This form of transparency creates an opportunity for the public to be informed about government bodies and elected officials that represent them, and gives the public an important tool to hold government accountable for its actions. Unfortunately, Belvidere Township in Boone County...

Recording and publishing the audio of board meetings is an essential public good. This form of transparency creates an opportunity for the public to be informed about government bodies and elected officials that represent them, and gives the public an important tool to hold government accountable for its actions.

Unfortunately, Belvidere Township in Boone County just signed off on a resolution that allows them to destroy audio recordings of board meetings. According to the Rockford Register Star:

“Citing ‘inconvenience and expense,’ Belvidere Township officials passed a resolution earlier this month saying it’s OK to erase recordings of their meetings soon afterward.”

Memo to Belvidere Township: In the electronic age, it is neither difficult nor expensive to store recordings of board meetings. With the advancement of electronic technology one can buy a 3 terabytes (TB) external hard drive for less than $100, which allows for the storage of nearly 5,500 hours, or 229 days, of CD quality audio recordings.

Certainly, a single external hard drive could last the township for years at a miniscule cost.

In reality, it’s more costly for Belvidere Township to destroy recordings of public meetings than to just leave them in storage.

Most likely Belvidere Township’s real reason for destroying audio records is the “inconvenience” of having an accurate record of what happens at public meetings. Many public officials want to escape the scrutiny of informed citizens trying to hold them accountable.

Members of the anti-transparency board were squeamish when approached by local reporters to offer an explanation for the new policy.

“Supervisor Patrick Murphy and Clerk Judy Schabacker declined to comment on the policy despite numerous requests from the Rockford Register Star.”

No matter how small, every local government in Illinois should be required to maintain an electronic audio recording of open meetings. Citizens deserve an accurate record of public meetings of public bodies they pay taxes into.

Illinois’ Open Meetings Act laws don’t require audio recordings of open public meetings, but it should. It also should require that those recordings never be destroyed by government bodies. Those recordings should be made available to the public either through a Freedom of Information Act request or through a website where the information is posted proactively.

The citizens of Illinois deserve statewide transparency protections from all levels of government.