Must see TV in Cape Vincent

Dysfunctional town board meetings are nothing new in the North Country, or anywhere else, for that matter. But rarely is a bizarre dysfunctional moment captured so cleanly on video as last night’s town board meeting in Cape Vincent (here’s the coverage from the Watertown Daily Times).

Resident John Byrne was videotaping the meeting when town supervisor Tom Rienbeck tried to prevent him from doing so by calling the cops. Here’s what happened:

FWIW, Byrne is pretty clearly in the right on this one. Here’s interpretation of New York’s Open Meeting Law, from the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press:

While the OML does not address the issue of allowing photographic or video recordings of meetings, the courts have upheld the right to photograph or video meetings in an unobtrusive manner. Csorny v. Shoreham-Wading River Cent. Sch. Dist., 305 A.D.2d 83, 795 N.Y.S.2d 513 (2d Dep’t 2002) (A board of education adopted a resolution that allowed members of the public to make audio recordings of its meetings but prohibited the use of video cameras for that purpose. Petitioner filed an Article 78 proceeding challenging the resolution. The trial court dismissed the action. The intermediate appellate court held that the board had the authority to reasonably regulate the public’s use of video cameras at its public meetings, but that it did not have the authority to impose a categorical ban on the use of cameras, which violated the Open Meetings Law.); Peloquin v. Arsenault, 162 Misc.2d 306, 616 N.Y.S.2d 716 (Sup. Ct. 1994) (board policy banning all cameras and camcorders violates the OML).

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