Does your local government livestream and record its meetings?

In the age of the internet and social media, many people look online for news and information.

Long gone are the days of public notices tacked to the town hall’s door. In this new age, some local governments have opted to livestream, record or post their meetings — the regular gatherings of public officials where most local policy decisions are made — online for the public to attend or view virtually.

Not all governments do, however.

A 2023 survey of municipalities by the New York Coalition for Open Government found that only 23 percent of local governments post instructions on their websites explaining how to access livestreams and video recordings of meetings.

Governments don’t have to. New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have no universal standard. Each county, city, town, village, borough, or school board can choose whether to livestream or record its meetings, and whether — and where — to post those recordings online.

Municipalities can also choose what equipment to use, which meetings to stream and whether to make staples of in-person government discourse, such as public comment, accessible online.

In New York state, the Open Meetings Law gives the public the right to attend any meeting held by a local governing body. It also gives the public the right to record and livestream meetings. It does not require local governments to livestream or record meetings themselves.

In Pennsylvania, the Sunshine Act guarantees the public’s right to attend and record government meetings. It does not require local governments to record their own meetings.

New Jersey residents fall under the Open Public Meetings Act, which guarantees the right to attend meetings of public bodies.

The law does not address recording, but the New Jersey Supreme Court in its Tarus v. Pine Hill decision has held that the public has a right to record meetings and that municipalities may reasonably restrict that recording.

Local governments are not required to post meetings online.

Does your local government livestream and record its meetings?

New York

The towns of Chester, Goshen, Warwick and Monroe all have official public YouTube channels that livestream meetings and upload them afterward.

The city of Port Jervis also has a public YouTube channel but does not livestream meetings; instead, the city uploads recordings to the channel after each meeting, typically within a day.

In Woodbury, the village and town share a YouTube channel and meetings from both governments are uploaded to the site, typically within a day of the meeting.

The villages of Chester and Goshen do not upload or livestream public meetings. Neither does the Village of Harriman, which also lacks an official Facebook page.

Florida livestreams meetings on the village’s official Facebook account.

The villages of Greenwood Lake and Warwick livestream and upload meetings to YouTube.

Some boards of education also record and livestream meetings. In Orange County, the Warwick Valley School District, Chester School District and Port Jervis City School District all livestream and record the video of their meetings. The Greenwood Lake School District records and posts meetings to Youtube, typically within one day of the meeting.

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, the boroughs of Milford and Matamoras do not livestream or record their meetings on YouTube or Facebook.

The Delaware Valley School District, which includes Milford and Matamoras, uploads its board meetings to YouTube.

New Jersey

The Township of Sparta livestreams and records its meetings on YouTube. The town of Newton and the Township of Vernon livestream on Zoom and then upload the meetings to YouTube the following day.

Byram makes audio of its meetings available on the township’s website. Andover and Lafayette do not record general public meetings, though in Lafayette, residents can request footage from the town’s land use board.

In Wantage, the township records its meetings, but the recording is made available only upon a resident’s request.

The boroughs of Branchville, Hamburg, Franklin, Ogdensburg, Sussex and Stanhope do not record or livestream their meetings.

In West Milford, residents can watch local government meetings through a video player on the township’s website featuring footage of past meetings, which also air on WM-77.

The High Point Regional School District, Sparta Township Public School District, and Vernon Township School District all either livestream and upload, or record and upload, their meetings to YouTube.

The Montague Township School District uploads recordings of meetings to its official website.

Alternatively, the Wallkill Valley Regional High School District, Hamburg School, Lenape Valley Regional High School District and Newton Public School District do not.

The Andover Regional School District, Byram Township School District, Franklin Borough School District, Ogdensburg Borough School District and Lafayette Township School District do not record and upload their meetings.