The Park Ridge Recreation and Park District Board isn't frightful either -- still not a bad looking bunch with the addition of the new guy, top row, third from the left, Mr. David Herman. We first told you about Mr. Herman here.
The Park Ridge Park Board likes to brag about being the first local government body to post their board packets and videos online. And we thank them for that. Take a bow Park Board. Make it quick.
However, being first doesn't mean being best. Being first doesn't mean being very good either.
What the PRU Crew is finding quite frightful is the fact that there have been five meetings of the Park Board since October 1st -- Oct. 15th, Nov. 5th, Nov. 19th and Dec. 3rd. -- but the most recent Park Board minutes available online are from Oct. 1st, and the most recent videos available online are from Oct. 15th.
This is now the month of December, right? Did the Park Board fail to approve the minutes from their November meetings? Is there some sort of law which requires the posting of approved minutes within a certain amount of time? We aren't sure about that, but we think it's quite frightful when certain employees at the Park Ridge Recreation and Park District aren't making use of available technology in a timely manner.
O.k. Park Board, the City pols -- and certain community volunteers -- are kicking your ass in terms of performance in getting information out into the public arena. But take heart. You guys don't suck quite as much as the School districts do.
Update 12-11-09 -- Somebody did their job! Two additional sets of minutes have been added to the Park District website, Oct. 15th and Nov. 5th. To whomever goes the thanks, thanks! We look forward to the video additions too.
14 comments:
Good catch, PRU. With all the stuff going on at city hall, its easy to overlook these other taxing bodies, especially the Park Board with its modest (comparatively) budget. They need to raise their game.
And you are exactly right about the school districts really sucking when it comes to information and overall transparency.
Boy, I can't wait to rip these guys a new one!
I agree with the first comment. Good catch.
This is what I like about PRU. When everyone is looking in one direction, PRU takes a look in some other place and tells us about it.
PRU, keep up the good work.
Get on it Park Brd. commissioners!
Isn't this where some idiot comes on and says if folks care they should attend the meetings?
i care, but i can't go to every meeting. and if i (or anybody else) need to go to every meeting, why are we electing these "representatives"?
i find it interesting that volunteers video and upload city meetings (thanks, messrs. kirkland and melidosian) by the next day, while the park district employees take months to do that task. and the school districts, our biggest taxing bodies, are still in blackout mode.
I have a technical question. If I click on one of the videos you provide in your posts (thank you and all involved by the way) does this count as a "view" on the motionbox site???
Yes
I can't get to meetings either and I am very happy Mayor Schmidt bought the video camera and we have people willing to give their time and I don't have to rely on the papers only. I don't always agree with the opinions but the blogs are much better at covering things and keeping track of things. I would not have known the park district has videos if it were not for the PRU.
PRU:
Thanks for the reply. Of course the airing of meetings is a worth while exercise no matter what, and the gentlemen who are giving of their own time to make it happen deserve our thanks but......(ya knew there was a but).....I can't help but find the number of "views" to be dissappointing. I have no experience with what a good number should be, but it would appear to me that most of the views come from people who are already "active" politically and click through from your site. In other words it does not appear (as yet) there was this huge audience that wanted to view these meetings but could not get there. I guess one could make the case that the numbers do show growth. Hopefully the numbers will continue to grow over time.
Anon@6:12 --
Horses and water.
Considering the number of registered voters in Park Ridge and the number that voted in the last election, we're disappointed too.
We're still averaging between a low of 1500 and a high of 2500 unique visits per week.
The numbers of people who actively seek out information is always disappointing.
But we still feel there has been a marked improvement in civic participation on the part of the average citizen.
We'll take it and keep plugging away while pushing for more. As far as we're concerned there are now no less than three additional sources of information, two (PRU and Pub-dogs) with some difference of opinion and one (the videos) offered without any opinion, from which Park Ridge citizens and voters can find information and form their own opinions in a more informed way. The more voices the better. The more informational resources the better.
How many people read the meeting minutes from any of our local government entities? The law still requires minutes be kept and made available for even the one person who may give a shit. If there are only 100 people who view any of the meeting videos from any given meeting, that's still 100 people more informed about the meeting than their would have been otherwise.
That's good enough for us.
Ich liebe dicht (sp) PRU-baby!
-- drop the "t"
Thanks.
je t'aime
Some of us may want to spend time working on our confused use of pronouns, adjectives and/or adverbs. There you go.
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