The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Petition calls for livestream township
LIMERICK » Having ignored previous requests to have their meetings livestreamed electronically, Limerick Township Supervisors are now faced with a citizen petition seeking the action.
King’s Way resident Oliver Cannady alerted the supervisors to the petition’s existence, and the more than 218 signatures it contains, at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We the people of Limerick Township, in the interests of a more open and transparent local government, request the township meetings be televised or live-streamed,” the petition reads according to Cannady, who read it for the supervisors.
“Under normal circumstances,” he read, “many
Limerick residents have responsibilities and other conflicts which prevent their attendance at Limerick Township Board meetings,” the petition reads. “And it would be to the benefit of the township to allow residents to view the meetings through a livestream which can be archived,” he read.
Resident Abby Deardorff told the supervisors that if their meetings were put online via Zoom, like the Spring-Ford School Board meetings are, “everyone in Limerick could hear it. There’s no reason why you can’t.”
Cannady asked how the petition could be put on the next meeting agenda “for appropriate discussion,” and was told by Vice Chairwoman Kara Shuler to bring it to the administration. “The chairperson sets the agenda with the administration,” she said.
Chairman Ken Neafcy was absent Tuesday. Shuler said the matter will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
Which is more consideration than Supervisor Patrick Morroney has received in his attempt to put the matter on the agenda.
He has been rebuffed for three months trying to get the supervisors to discuss a formal motion calling on Montgomery County Commissioner
Joe Gale to resign due to comments he made about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Morroney has been told by Neafcy that three supervisors need to agree to put it on the agenda for formal consideration and, to date, none have been willing to do so.
Morroney, the board’s only Democrat, has also asked repeatedly that the meetings be broadcast in some manner so that they can be recorded — he has disputed some township minutes — and to protect residents who want to participate but are at increased risk by being exposed to the coronavirus.
“It would not even cost us a lot of money. We already have the technology,” he said.
“I was not allowed to make a motion about this at the last meeting because you guys all ran out of here like puppy dogs with your tails between your legs,” Morroney said.
Last month’s meeting included multiple requests for live-streaming of meetings as well as stormy conversation, not for the first time, about enforcing the township’s requirement that masks be worn inside the township building.
It ended with Morroney accusing the other supervisors of being “racist” for refusing to act on his motion to call on Gale to resign. He has since apologized, adding “what I should have said is that in my opinion I feel their thought process and actions do not appear to be inclusive and some of my constituents consider their inaction to be racist.”
Rather than wait until next month, Morroney again made a motion Tuesday to have the meetings live-streamed.
“I’ll just wait for the crickets,” he said in reference to the fact that no one would second his motion to allow for a vote. Shuler replied: “I just said it will be on next month’s agenda.”
Morroney then responded, “if Dr. Neafcy, esquire, will allow it.”
Shuler asked if he had any other comments to offer “without being snarky,” and accepted a motion to adjourn.