Advocate questions why Shawnee County Commission sessions might not be recorded, streamed

The leader of an open government group voiced concern this week after the Shawnee County Commission's website indicated weekly work sessions commissioners plan to hold won't be recorded or live-streamed on that site.

Though regular commission meetings on Thursdays will be "streamed/recorded," work sessions on Mondays "will not be streamed/recorded," that site said.

Failure to stream meetings, when an agency obviously has the ability to do so, is likely to beg all kinds of questions as to what the body must be hiding if it chooses to eliminate access that it has the capability to provide, said Lawrence attorney Max Kautsch, president of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government.

"There is simply no good reason to deny public access to these meetings under these circumstances, and officials acting against the public interest in this way could well face electoral consequences," Kautsch said.

Shawnee County Commission Chairman Bill Riphahn said Monday that no decision had been made as to whether the work sessions would be recorded and/or streamed.

"We'll probably work that out this week," he told The Capital-Journal.

Riphahn said he considered it likely the work sessions would be recorded and streamed.

First work session to be Monday

Riphahn said commissioners still need to work out some details as they prepare to put in place the arrangements laid out in a resolution approved Jan. 9.

The resolution did away with the prior arrangement, in which commissioners acted on proposals as they met at 9 a.m. Mondays and 9 a.m. Thursdays. Those meetings were recorded and live-streamed on the commission's website.

Under the new arrangement, the commission beginning next week will hold:

• A work session, in which no official action will be taken, at 9 a.m. Mondays at a "location noted on the agenda."

• And an action meeting, in which proposals will be voted on, at 9 a.m. Thursdays in their chambers at 707 S.E. Quincy.

Another detail commissioners need to work out regarding the sessions involves whether public comments are to be accepted there, Riphahn said.

Topeka's mayor and city council maintain a similar practice of regularly discussing, but not acting on, proposals during the meeting before they act on them.

'A better set-up'

The practice of holding work sessions was something Commissioners Riphahn, Kevin Cook and Aaron Mays had been looking at "for a long time," Riphahn said.

"I think it'll just be a better set-up," he said.

The work sessions and meetings will be open to the public, Riphahn said.

No work session was held this past Monday, as commissioners had previously voted not to meet that day because it was a federal holiday celebrating the anniversary of the birth of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

'A better product'

Implementing the work sessions is aimed at giving Shawnee County residents "a better product" in terms of the government they receive, Riphahn said.

Constituents will benefit from commissioners' being able to have a meeting once a week "where we just sit down and discuss things," he said.

Those conversations will give the commission "an opportunity to be better prepared when we do vote," Riphahn said.

The work sessions will also be a good time for commissioners to hear presentations from county department heads, organizations receiving county funding and other entities such as the Gage Park Improvement Authority, he added.

'Less formal'

The changes being made will give commissioners more flexibility in terms of being able to take work sessions "on the road" and hold them at locations other than 707 S.E. Quincy, Riphahn said.

He said he anticipates the atmosphere at the work sessions will be "a little less formal" than at the county's regular meetings.

Riphahn said he personally planned to "set the tone for that a little bit" at the work sessions by no longer wearing a tie, which he's historically done at commission meetings.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Shawnee County Commission to make changes to structure of its meetings