The Putnam County Legislature earlier this month rejected a proposal that would have required livestreaming of all public meetings — including legislative sessions and public hearings held by the county executive — while also codifying the county’s responsibility to maintain a budget transparency website.
A second bill introduced last week that largely mirrored the original proposal never made it to a vote.
The Legislature already livestreams its meetings and subcommittee sessions, but supporters of the legislation said codifying the practice would ensure it could not be reversed by future administrations or legislative bodies.
The measure, known as the Taxpayer Transparency Act, was first introduced by Legislator Laura Russo (R-Patterson, District 4) and endorsed by County Executive Kevin Byrne, who said he was surprised and disappointed when it failed.
“Let’s be honest about where we’ve been. For years, county government resisted transparency. First there was no livestreaming, then audio only, then periods with no live access at all,” Byrne said. “Now we finally have both video and audio, but some want to move backward instead of forward.”
The vote ended in a 4-4 tie, which effectively defeated the measure. Legislators Bill Gouldman (District 2), Jake D’Angelo (District 5), Dan Birmingham (District 7) and Russo voted in favor. Toni Addonizio (District 3), Tom Regan (District 6), Amy Sayegh (District 8, Mahopac) and Nancy Montgomery (District 1), the Legislature’s lone Democrat, voted against it.
Legislator Erin Crowley (District 9, Mahopac/Mahopac Falls) was absent because she was attending a funeral, but later said she would have voted in favor of the proposal.
“A couple of years ago I proposed that Putnam County Legislature meetings be livestreamed, and it was added to our legislative manual not as a convenience, but as a commitment to transparency, accessibility and public trust,” Crowley wrote in a statement posted on social media. “Government works best when it is open.”
Crowley reintroduced Russo’s bill at last week’s Legislature meeting.
“The legislation had already gone through committee review and had been amended several times by multiple legislators in an effort to move it forward,” Crowley said. “Unfortunately, despite those efforts, it did not pass out of the full legislative meeting.
“Transparency and accessibility in government should never be partisan issues,” she added. “The people of Putnam County deserve easy access to information about how decisions are made and how taxpayer dollars are spent.”
Crowley said she also submitted new legislation to the Rules Committee aimed at “making county government more accessible to the people who elected us to office.”
“Chairman Birmingham blocked me from even handing out the proposed legislation, claiming it needed to go back to committee for ‘more discussion’ because he has another proposal he wants to bring forward,” Crowley said. “After multiple amendments and committee review, it’s becoming clear that this is more about politics than transparency.”
Byrne argued livestreaming is important for seniors, residents with disabilities, working families and first responders working overnight shifts who cannot attend meetings in person.
“The proposal also locks in budget transparency standards, so future administrations are held to the same bar we’ve set,” Byrne said. “Transparency shouldn’t depend on who’s in the room; it should be a guarantee.”
Byrne said the Legislature did not fully embrace livestreaming until the COVID-19 pandemic “kind of forced the issue.”
“I’ve always advocated for it. Some Legislature candidates even ran on it,” he said. “I included the Taxpayer Transparency Act in my State of the County speech in March 2023 and got a positive reaction from across party lines.”
Byrne also said he believed some legislators may have opposed the measure because they thought it originated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nonpartisan group that drafts model legislation.
However, Mid-Hudson News reported that ALEC’s version of a Taxpayer Transparency Act appeared on its website months after Putnam County’s proposal was first circulated.
“I think some were just trying to make a point,” Byrne said. “What that point is, I don’t know.”
Sayegh rejected the notion that lawmakers who voted against the bill oppose transparency, noting the Legislature already livestreams its meetings, saying additional legislation is unnecessary.
“It is a political football,” she said. “We already are transparent. Every meeting we have is livestreamed and we are not going to stop doing that.”
Sayegh, who is not seeking reelection this fall, said she does not believe any future administration or Legislature would eliminate livestreaming.
“Why would anyone change that? That would be political suicide,” she said.
She also questioned what would happen if livestreaming were legally required but technical issues or severe weather prevented a meeting from being broadcast.
“If we codify it, we could run afoul of our own law,” Sayegh said. “I am not against livestreaming, but this is just political banter.”
Montgomery, who also voted against the proposal, said she had pushed for livestreaming years before the current legislation was introduced and called the Taxpayer Transparency Act “more about hollow optics than real accountability.”
“I want to be very clear about this: I’ve been pushing for transparency in Putnam County for years, long before it became politically convenient,” Montgomery told Mahopac News. “Livestreaming meetings is a good example. That did not come from this proposal or the one adopted for the legislative manual. It came after sustained pressure from me and years of resistance from the Republican Legislature after I first proposed it in 2019.”
Montgomery said the proposed Taxpayer Transparency Act “raises legitimate concerns.”
“It centralizes control over how information is presented through the executive branch, without a clear implementation plan, without additional resources for already stretched departments, and without addressing some of the most significant transparency issues residents actually face,” she said. “Transparency is not a slogan or a press release. It is timely access to records, accountability and equal application across government.”
Montgomery pointed to ongoing concerns involving the Soil and Water Conservation District, where she said officials and residents have struggled to obtain records and information.
“That should concern everyone, and that’s where the focus should be,” she said. “This ‘Transparency Act’ does not correct that issue.”
Montgomery said she remains supportive of strengthening transparency laws, but believes the current proposal falls short.
“Transparency should be comprehensive, workable and applied evenly across government,” she said. “This proposal, as written, does not get us there.”
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