The Morristown council meeting of Oct. 8, 2019, was a hot one.
Normally, you could watch a video replay on the town website, and on cable TV. But not this time. There is no town video. Municipal officials are blaming technical issues.
So Morristown Green is posting video we shot that night. (See below.) It’s not the entire meeting, and it’s not as polished as the town’s usual council productions. But it’s everything we have, and it includes most of the evening’s highlights, including:
Political opponents challenging the residency of a lame-duck councilwoman… Councilwoman Hiliari Davis responding… the town public safety director sharing statistics from a pedestrian safety campaign… and the council introducing an ordinance to regulate short-term, Airbnb-type home rentals.
MorristownGreen.com video of the Morristown council meeting, Oct. 8, 2019:
Our video includes:
- 00:00 Public comments
- 11:34 Council responses to those comments
- 23:24 Pedestrian Safety Report by Public Safety Director Michael Corcoran Jr.
- 38:45 Mayor Tim Dougherty’s report
- 57:54 Town Attorney Vij Pawar fields questions about Airbnb ordinance; council votes
Michael Hamfeldts, whose company, Hamfeldts Video, contracts with the town to provide video services, said the glitch was the first one he can recall during his four years of webcasting Morristown council meetings. The Morristown High alum referred further questions to town Clerk Margot Kaye.
“The cameras were indeed rolling however the issue was with the internet connection which was found to be not working only minutes before the start of the meeting,” Kaye said via email. “Due to the internet being down, a recording was not made.”
Hamfeldts explored whether other technical means could recover the video, without success, according to Kaye.
“Unfortunately, there is no video available for the October 8th meeting,” the town clerk said on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear if any procedures have been established for creating backups in the future.
