Proposal to Televise Supervisor Meetings Could Finally Pass

A proposal to televise meetings of the Orange County Board of Supervisors may finally be adopted with the help of the newest board member, Cynthia Coad.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer will present a proposal next week, and it appears likely to get a majority vote. Supervisor Tom Wilson supports televising meetings, as does Coad, who took office this month.

Board approval of televised meetings would put the county in line with most cities, many school districts and all the large California counties, like Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego counties.

Both Spitzer and Coad said Monday that televising the meetings would help increase the public’s access to county government.

“Prior to the county declaring bankruptcy in December, 1994, many residents did not understand the workings of the board nor the responsibility of individual supervisors to residents,” Spitzer states in his proposal.

In the past, Wilson has supported televising the meetings, and he is expected to support the move this time as well.

Under the plan, three meetings would be taped and broadcast as part of a pilot project. Staff workers would be given 120 days to assess the program and recommend either stopping the project or continuing to broadcast board meetings.

In July 1997, Spitzer and Wilson proposed televising the meetings, but they could not get the needed third vote.

Fearing that televised proceedings would lead to grandstanding and a circus-like atmosphere, the majority of the five-member board has not favored cameras in the board’s chambers.

The issue was one of numerous ones in last fall’s election on which Supervisor Jim Silva and his challenger, Huntington Beach Councilman Dave Sullivan, differed. Silva, who opposed televising board meetings, won.

Coad said Monday that she supports televising the supervisors’ meetings not only to make them more accessible to the public but also to lessen concerns about safety in attending meetings.

Her concern about public safety, she said, arose from a night meeting she attended during her campaign. The board holds one meeting a month in the evening.

“When the meeting broke up, it was dark,” she said. “I did not feel it was something I wanted to do regularly because I didn’t feel there was that measure of safety.”