Rancho Santa Margarita residents are stepping up to increase city hall transparency themselves by videotaping meetings.
It comes after residents in this city of about 50,000 people read a student-led Voice of OC investigation detailing how their city is one of only two Orange County cities that don’t offer a way to watch city government from home like 94% of the county’s 34 cities do.
[Read: Making it Easy to Watch Local Government From Home]
First, residents said they approached their city leaders, who told them they were awaiting direction from Sacramento – a unique position for a place like Orange County where so many of the same leaders complain about state dictates at the local level.
In the end, State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo – a Democrat who sponsored legislation intended to bring the state’s open meetings laws into the 21st century – reportedly backed away from requiring cities to videotape their meetings.
Yet these residents aren’t waiting for Sacramento.
The fact that Rancho Santa Margarita leaders don’t want their neighbors watching them on video lit a fuse in these residents, prompting that special thing that makes America great.
Civic action.
“It’s not a Blue or Red issue,” said Rancho Santa Margarita resident Amber Bloomer. “it’s about getting involved. We need to pay attention.”
A few months back, Bloomer along with a growing group of motivated residents – organized under the banner RSM4All – started taking turns each week videotaping their local city council meetings and uploading them to their own Youtube channel – Rancho Santa Margarita Citizens 4 Transparency.
“It’s not hard,” Bloomer said.
I visited a Rancho Santa Margarita City Council meeting earlier this month to see how the resident-led effort was working and was greeted by Cindy Ashley, who was on videotaping duty.
Thanks to her efforts that night, the nice presentation offered by city leaders to local veterans to commemorate Veterans Day is now preserved and available for residents to watch their neighbors being honored for their service.
At the city council meeting, Bloom also got up and respectfully chided Mayor Anthony Beale for offering a State of the City address at an event sponsored by the local chamber of commerce that wasn’t yet available for local residents to watch on video.
In response, Beale announced that there would be a video available of his speech soon.
Just before the start of the Nov. 12 city council meeting, I approached Beale in a public hallway at city hall as the city’s reception for veterans was concluding, handed him my business card with my phone number on it and asked him if he would take questions about the lack of videotaping city council meetings.
I’m still waiting to hear back.
Other residents that night also spoke during public comment, all of them calling for livestreaming, noting that the costs are minimal and it’s also important for people with disabilities who might face challenges coming to city hall or benefit from assistance like closed captioning to follow official business.
Looking over the details of the Nov. 12 meeting agenda showed numerous interesting issues and areas where citywide civic participation would be boosted by a better understanding of how city policies are shaped.
For example, that night officials were discussing ways of making internet access faster and more reliable across the city, in addition to historic considerations like a veterans monument.
Rancho Santa Margarita officials do note that audio records of their meetings are available for residents after the meetings are concluded, much like Orange County’s Transportation Authority once argued before they introduced videotaping earlier this year after Voice of OC reporting on the issue.
[Read: OC’s Transportation Agency Begins Video Streaming Public Meetings]
Yet just last month, city resident Tasia Surch – who uses hearing aids – came to the city council to let them know that their audio is horrible, which effectively squashes her ability to participate.. She has to work on council nights, but wants to stay plugged in.
Audio doesn’t allow for that.
“The audio is terrible for someone trying to listen in,” Surch told city leaders. “Your audio recordings are of no value to me.”
Despite work obligations, Surch said she came to offer public comment that night because she felt it was important to speak about the issue.
She credited Rancho Santa Margarita Councilwoman Keri Lynn Baert for advocating to examine the cost of videotaping meetings earlier this year and criticized her colleagues for failing to support even studying the idea.
[Read: Rancho Santa Margarita Officials Resist Livestreaming City Council Meeting Video]
“I’m very upset and disappointed that Councilperson Baert did not even get a second to her motion, like no, we don’t want to even talk about this,” Surch said. “That’s unfortunate and unfair to those with disabilities like me or those who cannot attend due to work or family obligations.”
Cindy Ashley, who was videotaping the night I visited, also noted the futility of trying to follow a government meeting with only audio – as if it were the 1930s.
“Even as a person without any disability,” Ashley told me,”I find it hard to always know who is speaking. And when there is a video presentation, you miss that content. It may be available on the city website, but it would be so much easier to follow along as it is discussed live.”
Easier to follow along.
Unfortunately, that’s the exact opposite of what too many politicians and special interests want taxpayers to be able to do, especially in real time, before decisions are made.
State leaders crafted the historic Ralph M. Brown Act back in 1953 to require open government meetings, ensuring Californians were able to make their government work for them, not the other way around.
It’s sad to see that the spirit of the Brown Act isn’t being respected in the cities of Rancho Santa Margarita and La Palma, which refuse to allow their residents to see what they do in real time from home as well as leaving a permanent viewable rendering of their live deliberations for posterity
That fact alone should terrify every resident living in those cities and ring alarm bells.
Your leaders aren’t exactly excited about you seeing what they are doing with your tax dollars, freedom or quality of life.
Keep in mind that last November, Rancho Santa Margarita is the city where former mayor and longtime city councilwoman Carol Gamble pleaded guilty to charges she falsified her nomination paperwork, “stating she personally collected the signatures necessary to qualify her for the November 5, 2024, Rancho Santa Margarita City Council election for District 3.”
That means Gamble, who served on the city council for 16 of the last 20 years, lied about personally gathering a simple 30 signatures to run for office, according to the DA’s release.
As sad as that is for the residents of Rancho Santa Margarita, it’s deeply inspiring to know that there are residents out there that aren’t waiting for Sacramento or their local politicians to increase city hall transparency – giving more residents the knowledge they need to defend their quality of life.
Their civic action – videotaping official meetings and making them accessible to all residents – truly honors the huge sacrifices paid by veterans and their families much more than the official pronouncements I heard Rancho Santa Margarita city leaders offer at this month’s city council meeting.