Over these past months I have enjoyed talking to the citizens of Commissioner District 5. I would like to take this opportunity to bring up an important topic that I feel needs to be discussed in this election: citizens having access to the workings of local government.

County board meetings are held at 8:30 a.m. on the first and third Tuesday morning of the month. The timing of these meetings makes it nearly impossible for many of our hard-working citizens to attend. I strongly believe that ALL citizens of Freeborn County should have access to ALL county board meetings. There are three changes that could be made to grant the citizens of Freeborn County more access to our county government.

First and foremost, I feel that all county board meetings should be broadcast on the local public access channel. This is a common practice in many cities across America and gives many more citizens the opportunity to view county board meetings at times that fit their schedules. The city of Albert Lea has stated that board meetings could be held at the City Council Chambers at no cost. We are fortunate in that this room is already set up to broadcast meetings over the airwaves. There would be an initial cost to the county in setting up the County Commissioners Board Room for broadcast for installation of cameras and other materials, but not at the City Council Chambers. Clearly it would be cost efficient to simply hold the meetings in the City Council Chambers. There is not a charge from the public access channel to actually broadcast the meetings regardless of where the meetings are held as long as the room is set up properly, as is the City Council Chambers.

Second, the Internet is fast becoming the standard in the way people get their news. We could have the commissioners’ meeting put on the current Freeborn County Web site. The meetings could easily be broadcast live, recorded, and then uploaded onto the site for citizens to access at their leisure. I know what you are thinking, “not everyone has access to cable” and “not everyone has or wants access to the Internet.” This brings me to a third possibility.

Third, why is it that the county commissioner meetings are not broadcast on any of our local radio stations? This question rings loudly in my mind when I consider the fact that the City Council meetings are broadcast on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Why are not the commissioner meeting being broadcast? If it is because of the time the meetings are held, I feel that a simple solution is to have them tape-delayed, and broadcast at a more suitable time.

The citizens of Freeborn County deserve open government and our citizens should have the opportunity and tools to access and see or hear our local government at work.

Mike Lee

candidate

Commissioner District 5

Albert Lea