SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO AM) Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether opposes the new push for videotaping of unelected boards and committees in the city to let more sunshine in.
He has vetoed the City Council's 5-2 decision requiring the Parks and Recreation Board to record meetings. Council could overturn the veto but it will take six votes.
Before his veto announcement, Huether called such recording a slippery slope, in part, because it will discourage citizen involvement:
"We already have challenges right now when it comes to getting people to volunteer for some of these committees. We are really struggling. We have over 40 committees," Huether tells KELO Radio's Greg Belfrage Show.
The City Parks and Recreation Board will now be required to record their meetings for posting online. City Councilor Pat Starr wants to expand recording to other citizen committees. He plans to start with REMSA, the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority.
Supporters say taping the meetings will lead to more transparency and focus more sunlight on public discussions.
But Mayor Huether says unelected members of these committees could also wind up being embarrased by potential tinkering on the internet.
"They'll take snippets of a video that either they've taken or that somebody else has taken and then they create these other things are Facebook or on blogs or whatever," warns Huether.