Offer to Stream Board Meeting for Free Draws Criticism

As they say...no good deed goes unpunished.

- Naked Conch - Posted by Matt Gardi -  June 30, 2012

The recent school board meeting in which our new School Superintendent was selected was steamed live over the Internet, and happily close to 2000 viewers had tuned in at some point, with as many as 187 watching at any one time.  This was conveneint, as the live broadcast on Comcast channel 78 failed.

While I certainly won't take credit for physically doing it, I did play a part.  The acheivement transpired as such; Larry Murray included me in an email that was asking Superintendent Jara if web streaming was possible, due to the time and location of the meeting, and for those residents that have dish or only Internet service.  Of course Jara responded in the classic government bureaucratic way...

It is not going to be available for next Thursday.  Mr. Nick Osterhoudt, IT Director spoke to the company that approached the district about offering a free service and it turned out to be a pricy proposition.

Knowing that streaming for free is not all that complicated in this day and age, it bothered me that our School Administrator, and the IT Director could not facilitate something so easy, for a meeting this important, at the request of the taxpaying public.  So I offered to do it for free.

Ultimately, due to my offer and lack of acceptance of the Schools simplistic response to Murray, Jara put his IT department in touch with me, and I talked them through accomplishing the task themselves.  Et voila, 2000 people enjoyed a free broadcast of an important meeting.  Yes, yes, the stream had advertising, ohhh heavens.  Not like we don't see advertising in just about every newspaper and TV progam on air, right?

So, what do I find posted on Coconut Telegraph in response to my free offer....

 [Live video streaming of School Board meetings: Matt's is a very
generous offer from a highly technically competent person. I can not
imagine why his offer would not be accepted.]  Probably because it
comes with strings.  What else will he put on the site, like
advertising?  It opens the road to commercialization of county
property.  Why is there always a catch when people offer to do things?
 Why isn't it enough for people that the doing is it's own reward.

Also, this is his version of politics, at which he is somewhat an
amateur.. His free offering comes with the string that he can then
stand in a political situation (forum, citizens group) and claim to be
helping MCSD - and by extension the children of all the parents in the
room - and they will love him for that and then vote for him.   Would
he have made that free offer if he was not running, or if this was not
such a critical time for MCSD ?  Where's he been with all his
technical skills for the last 3 or 4 years ?  Probably MCSD could have
used his "free" offer then, too.

And no,  this is not an anti Matt post.  I'd be saying the same thing
about any candidate who's trying to use MCSD for a little extra
campaign mileage.

I had to respond:

Dear Anonymous Poster Who Isn't Being Anti Matt Gardi,

First, as my wife has been a teacher for the last 8 years, I have been

in the schools with my IT skills.  I frequently assist, not only my

wife but other teachers at Gerald Adams in resolving issues,

especially at the start of the year.  I've relocated LAN ports in

trailers, helped resolve whiteboard issues, and assisted repairing the

mess caused in classrooms when IT equipment is thrown around like

trash to polish the floors.  I've also spent many hours providing cost

comparisons of email systems to Chairman John Dick to illustrate

potential cost saving options long before I was running for office.  I

also turn to the schools first with any PCs or printers when they are

being decommissioned in other agencies instead of just throwing them

out.  Sorry I didn't feel the need to mention that before I offered to

stream the school board meeting for free.  Thanks for your concern

about "doing" being it's own reward.

But more importantly, my motivation regarding streaming (for free) the

decision of hiring a new Superintendent was not for the children in

this instance, it was for the public.  As you may have heard much of

my campaign rhetoric is about transparency and open government, and

this seems to have provided an essential avenue for that, as Jara's

first reaction to the request was that it was "cost Prohibitive."  As

you see it was not.  It was free.  One of my other issues is with

administrators that lack imagination and can't find ways to do things

inexpensively, that's why I stepped in.  It's also why I'm running for

Clerk.

Ultimately the MCSD did it themselves after I described for them how

to do it, it was simple, not "cost prohibitive."  Close to 2000

members of our community were able to tune into the stream and watch

this historic event, this as Comcast Channel 78 failed.  If not for

Larry Murray pushing for it, and myself offering to do it and guiding

MCSD, none of those people could have tuned in.

Finally as for my "amateur" version of politics, I prefer to consider

it inventive.  I run my campaign just like I will run the Clerk's

Office.  As other candidates can't do any better than littering our

beautiful landscape with expensive signs that say nothing, I find

novel inexpensive ways to draw people to my website, where I discuss

in detail my track record of inventive and cost effective public

service, and my intentions of improving service to the public at the

Clerk's Office.  That website by the way is http://www.mattgardi.com/.

Paid for by Matt Gardi, Republican, for Clerk of Courts