Jan 10, 2020 2 min read

Before Greene County’s new board of commissioners brought its first regular meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance, Chairman Mike Belding brought attention to a phone pointed toward the dais.

The phone was streaming the commissioners’ meeting live to Facebook.

“It will be available, recorded, after this as a public meeting to increase transparency to what’s going on,” Belding said. “I think it gives an opportunity to people who can’t come at 10 o’clock in the morning on the days that we hold meetings to observe what their county government is participating in and some of the decisions we make.”

Thursday’s meeting was the second meeting to be livestreamed, following Wednesday’s agenda-setting meeting. Videos of the meetings are archived and can be accessed through either the Greene County Commissioners Facebook page or Greene County’s website.

Vice Chairwoman Betsy McClure said Wednesday’s meeting had more than 100 views within an hour. By noon, Thursday’s meeting had more than 500 views.

The practice of livestreaming the meetings was also adopted by the Washington County commissioners, who streamed their Tuesday meeting.

“They beat us by a day,” Belding said following the meeting.

“It was our idea,” added McClure.

The commissioners also voted to move their meetings later this month. The Jan. 22 agenda meeting will now be at 10 a.m. Jan. 29. The commissioners, salary, retirement and prison board meetings scheduled for Jan. 23 will now be held Jan. 30.

Belding said the change, which is for January meetings only, was due to a scheduling conflict.