LEAGUE CITY — The city council unanimously denied Mayor Toni Randall’s proposal to stop televising council meetings after citizens flooded their representatives with e-mails and phone calls and the mayor herself rejected the idea.
Randall seemed to back away from a written statement she issued last week. In the statement, she declared that “the change would encourage citizens to attend council meetings and become more directly involved in their city government.”
On Tuesday, she said she simply put the proposal before the council because some citizens asked her to do it and she felt obliged to bring it up on their behalf.
“This is not a personal thing,” she said. “You must remember, I represent this whole city.”
The proposal thrust Randall into an awkward position because it was criticized as an attack on open government, while making city government more accessible was part of her campaign platform.
League City resident Jeff Richards told the council some people will never attend a meeting because they work late or have children.
“There is nothing worse than a government that hides behind closed doors,” Richards said.
Randall’s proposal might actually do the opposite of curbing access to city government.
Several residents used the opportunity to complain about poor sound quality on municipal television channel 16.
The residents and council members asked for better sound and also called for an expansion of meeting broadcasts to include streaming video over the Internet and planning and zoning board meetings.
Councilman Mike Barber said the city tested an Internet broadcast and found it could be done “without great expense.”
Councilman Jim Nelson said that in four years on the City Council, this issue generated the most feedback from his constituents.
Even former Councilman and Mayor Jeff Harrison, who rarely attends council meetings, ventured in Tuesday to implore the council to continue broadcasting.
“You guys are my favorite reality program, so I try to watch whenever I can,” he said.
