Livestream the Meetings. Post the Minutes. Let the People See Their Government at Work.

To the Morgan County Commission:

We, the undersigned citizens of Morgan County, Tennessee, are asking for something simple:

Make our county government easier for the public to see, follow, and understand.
Not everyone can attend County Commission meetings in person. People work. Parents have children at home. Some residents are elderly or disabled. Some don't drive at night. And some simply cannot rearrange their lives every time county business is conducted.
That should not prevent them from knowing what their county government is doing.

We therefore petition the Morgan County Commission to:
1. Livestream all regular and special-called County Commission meetings.

2. Keep recordings of those meetings available online for the public to watch afterward.

3. Post approved County Commission minutes on the county website and maintain an online archive of them.

4. Make agendas, minutes, and meeting recordings easy for citizens to find in one location.
Place these requests on a County Commission agenda for public discussion and a recorded vote.

Public records may be available by request, but citizens shouldn't have to file a records request every time they want to see what happened at a public meeting.
And attending a meeting in person should not be the price of staying informed.
Other local governments use livestreaming and online records to give their citizens greater access. Morgan County can do the same.
This isn't about Republicans or Democrats.
It isn't about being for or against any particular elected official.
It's about accountability, accessibility, and transparency.
County officials make decisions involving our tax dollars, our roads, our schools, our property, and the future of our communities.
We have a right to pay attention.
We shouldn't have to depend on rumors, Facebook posts, secondhand accounts, or somebody who happened to be sitting in the room to tell us what occurred.
LET US WATCH IT OURSELVES.
LET US READ IT OURSELVES.
LET THE RECORD SPEAK FOR ITSELF.
If county business is being conducted openly and properly, making that business easier for the public to see should benefit everyone—including our elected officials.
Government works best when the people can see it working.
By signing this petition, we ask the Morgan County Commission to take these reasonable steps toward a more open, accessible, and transparent county. government.