In a churning, agonizing three-hour meeting this evening, the Portsmouth Town Council spent a few minutes on weighty issues (wastewater, financial benchmarking) and what seemed like an eternity on a proposal to pay someone to videotape their meetings. At about the midpoint of the evening, there were about 35 people there — including, incomprehensibly, a whole gang of Boy Scouts who probably got a civics lesson they'll never forget.

"You were the only reporter here tonight," Councilor Pete McIntyre said to me after the meeting. "Guess that makes me the newspaper of record," I replied. But not being a "newspaper," I get to be all self-referential in my second-graf quote.

Not that the papers missed all that much. The evening started with a wastewater update from Mike Schrader, the project manager at Woodard & Curran developing the facilities plan for the November sewer referendum. The Council spent about fifteen minutes peppering him with questions about the timeline and deliverables. Then Citizen Phil Driscoll took the podium and attempted to poke holes in the whole process.

"I've spoken to you people in the past about sewerage that doesn't work," said Driscoll. "Areas recently sewered that still have contamination — Narrow River. Middletown, Newport, half-a-dozen sewerage communities are under EPA guidance or scrutiny."

Jay Manning of the RI DEM got up to respond. "Middletown's problem is not because they sewered, but because they deferred maintenance." Then Driscoll got into the litany of other places. Were they all "deferred maintenance." No, Manning replied, there were some wildlife control issues.

The Council seemed satisfied, but Driscoll chased Manning and Schrader out into the hallway, continuing to harangue them until Town Clerk Viera-Boudin came out and asked everyone to be quiet. I followed, just to hear the kind of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt that is likely to be circulated in advance of the sewer bond. (As I always do, I will say here that I live in Island Park and have a strong point of view: we need sewers.)

"This town seems drawn to cans of worms," said Driscoll, pointing to the Town Hall fiasco, among others, and arguing that sewers were comparable. He pecked away at the numbers in the W&C report, and what would happen if we cleaned up the North end only to be the beneficiary of pollution from Tiverton and Fall River. Schrader had ready answers, and was quite open to the dialogue, and they probably talked for about fifteen minutes.

By the time I got back into the TC session, Faucher and a Mr. Schaefer, who appeared to be an outside consultant, were reviewing the Town's financial benchmarks. The high points: Portsmouth should consider moving their municipal employees to the State pension plan, both because it provides more stable and predictable costs, and also because it would allow the town to attract candidates from other cites within RI already in the system. There was also discussion of the state of the fund balance, which, comapred with other RI towns, is dangerously low, in the 3-4% range, compared to many towns with 8-10%, and some as high as 14. "Portsmouth," noted Schaefer, "is not one of them," leading to serious risks should there be a fiscal emergency (like asbestos discovered at a school.) The bottom line: the town did the right thing issuing a supplemental tax bill to pay the Caruolo decision rather than dipping into our depleted reserves.

Then came the video question. It seemed an innocuous agenda item: Request to award contract: Video Recording Services. The Council, ages ago, had asked Admin Bob Driscoll and Finance Director Dave Faucher to look into it, and they came back with an estimate that it would cost about $135/meeting from the one respondent to their RFP.

Pete McIntyre immediately moved to kill the proposal. "I was under the impression that everything was moving right along. Why are we spending $15K when we have a system that's working right now?"

Tailgunner Gleason got out her wagging finger. "I'm disappointed to see this brought forward to us. The PCC have been taping our meetings for 4-and-a-half years, a great service to our community, and it is working very well."

It was left to Councilor Len Katzman to be the voice of reason. "I am supportive of the Council taking responsibility for its own open meetings," he said. "It's our responsibility to put in place a system that people can feel is unbiased."

Now, because I am not the "newspaper of record," I can give a concrete example. At last week's school committee meeting, the PCC showed up ready to tape as someone who they acknowledged as one of their members, Jeff Richard, let loose a five-minute diatribe about negotiating the administrator's contract. I was there, and I would have blogged it then, but I was too depressed by the E. Main accident. But here's the nut: the school committee attorney urged them not to comment, and they explained that they were not going to discuss anything Richard said. But because the PCC was there to film him, he gets five minutes of airtime, unanswered, to spew questionable advice like suggesting that we pay experienced hires less simply because a comparable first-year hire would get less money and suggesting that we only have one-year contracts.

And yes, I realize the irony of my calling attention to bias. Hey, folks, say it with me: "Blogs are not newspapers." But even I have scruples. I haven't mentioned Mr. Buddemeyer's secret nickname, have I? You'll have to watch the video...

Jim Seveney tried to find some middle ground. "An official committee to serve the needs of public access," he suggested, "to be supported by a professional under contract." Bill West pointed out that the PCC solicited money by mentioning that one of the things they did was recording Town Council meetings. "I want to take politics out of the process," he said.

Larry, naturally, got up to reply. "It's a complicated process," he said, settling into the podium for a good long time in front of the camera, "We will not use the camera for political purposes." He stressed accountability. "I'm the manager of the system," he said, and pointed out that the PCC had donated over $10K of value. "You," he said to the Council about the video committee proposal, "Couldn't find any volunteers."

Tailgunner Gleason — mirabile dictu — echoed the PCC's sentiments. "Let's use some basic common sense. and go forward with what we're doing. We should appreciate and thank our volunteers."

Given the budget realities, there was no way a proposal to pay for taping was going to fly, and it was voted down. And as I admitted to Pete McIntyre after the meeting, I appreciate the service that the PCC provides. Yes, they benefit because they get to stand up and say stuff on TV, but they pay their dues: they show up and tape the meetings. And I know how hard that is. You know me. I'm not sucking up to the PCC. But I have to give credit where it's due.

In a perfect world, the local cable company would be required to cover all municipal meetings as part of their contract before being given monopoly rights in the town. But that's just me, being all idealistic.

The sad thing is that the School Committee, the Superintendent, and the school Finance Director were all sitting around, waiting for the tentative approval process that never happened; they got bumped to tomorrow night, and ended up leaving after the video quagmire. I believe the Council spend over a half hour discussing this proposed $5K contract, but I confess that my sense of time suffers when I'm trying to capture quotes. You can watch Channel 18 with a stopwatch and correct me.

After a few minor agenda items — a DPW leave of absence, buying a road compactor, a propane contract for Melville, and a refurb for one of the fire trucks, the meeting adjourned about 9:30.