Sunday, July 06, 2008

Help us bring back televised free speech at Pueblo City Council Meetings

Volunteers Needed to Carry Petitions.  Must be registered voter in the City of Pueblo.

Pueblo Citizens for Open Government is looking for volunteers who can carry petitions for a November ballot initiative that would reestablish a public forum prior to the commencement of the regular televised Pueblo City Council meetings.  The measure seeks to encourage free speech and the free flow of ideas by making the meetings more accessible and available to Pueblo’s citizens. 

On September 24th 2007 the Pueblo City Council voted to deny citizens the right to speak during regular televised city council meetings. The ability for citizens to address city council was moved to the non-televised work session meetings. This action was taken in a single meeting without any opportunity for public input.

City Council Member Judy Weaver was quoted in the newspaper saying, “People have to understand that this is our meeting being held in public; it’s not a public meeting,” Weaver said. - September 29 Pueblo Chieftain.

We believe that Pueblo City Council meetings are in fact public and that the citizens of Pueblo should be allowed to speak on camera so that people watching from home on public access TV are allowed to hear their comments.

If you are a registered voter who lives in the Pueblo City limits and are interested in carrying a petition please contact: Chris Nicoll (719) 248-4198 or send an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 

For more information visit the PCFOG website at http://www.pueblofreespeech.org

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1. I’m all for transparency, but your proposal doesn’t do much for the thousands of Pueblo County residents with satellite dishes. How about video streams from the city’s Web site?

   Dean  on  07/07  at  05:42 AM

2. I agree with you and have suggested that they stream the meetings on live video on the Web in addition to the public access TV broadcast.  This is something both the city and county should consider.  Right now we are focused on getting back what the City Council has taken away in their effort to shut people out of the meetings. They knew that by moving the public forum to the city council work sessions that very few people would ever hear the public comments that are made. People must now attend the work sessions in person to hear what is being said.

   Pueblofreespeech  on  07/07  at  06:52 AM

3. TO: Dean
   RE: Non-Cable Users

   “...[this] proposal doesn’t do much for the thousands of Pueblo County residents with satellite dishes.”—Dean

   Or those who don’t use cable or watch television at all. I gave up on television ten years ago.

   However, I still strongly support this initiative.

   
   RE: Streamers!

   “How about video streams from the city’s Web site?”—Dean

   THAT would be an EXCELLENT addition to the activity, indeed. But it still leaves those without high-speed access to the internet at something of a loss.

   Then again, we could look at seeing if PCC would be willing to donate a copy or two of DVD formated meeting recordings to the public library.

   There are myriad ways to get it out. But first and foremost, we need to get the public forum BACK into a recorded media.

   Regards,

   Chuck

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  07/07  at  12:30 PM

4. TO: Chris Nicoll
   RE: Petition Carriers

   I’ll be passing this information on at tomorrows Pueblo Neighborhood Partnership meeting.

   Regards,

   Chuck

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  07/07  at  12:33 PM

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