It's a shame that this is what make the papers. Did anything else happen at the meeting or did they bicker over VHS tapes for a couple of hours and accomplish nothing else. We're sure there was other notable business that could have been covered by the BCCT reporter.
PhillyBurbs.com: Councilman: 'Nothing is official' after resignationBy: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
Morrisville
As of Tuesday, Morrisville Councilman Victor Cicero officially was still on the council.
But late Monday night his status was questionable after he abruptly resigned and left a council meeting.
He didn't want to comment Tuesday afternoon, noting, "I haven't decided" and "nothing is official."
A frustrated Cicero left the council chambers after members voted 5-3 to table a discussion on the disposal of videotapes of old council meetings. Some council members had concerns about getting rid of the tapes, and the issue became a tit-for-tat among council members themselves and the public. That's when Cicero got frustrated and left.
Cicero, along with council President Nancy Sherlock and Councilman David Rivella, was in favor of getting rid of the tapes, some of which are as old as 15 years.
Two ordinances for tapes' disposal were up for discussion but not on the agenda because borough solicitor Todd Eisenberg provided the resolutions to the town the same day of the meeting, Sherlock said.
One resolution explained the reasons for the disposal and how the tapes would be discarded. The other resolution explained the process, Sherlock said.
Morrisville went from VHS tapes to DVD in June 2009, so Sherlock had suggested trashing the VHS tapes only and keeping the DVDs.
In February 2009 the council passed a resolution to follow the schedule of public information retention set by the state, so the resolutions were simply just following through with the 2009 resolution, Sherlock said Tuesday. The state schedule states that the meeting minutes are the official records.
"We don't need receipts from 1968," she said. "We have four or five boxes of tapes that are easy to get rid of. It's simply a procedure thing. The real records (of meetings) are the minutes, not the tapes. They are of no use to the administration."
Mayor Rita Ledger was particularly disturbed of the possibility of the tapes' destruction, saying Tuesday that she requested meeting recordings from November and December and hasn't been given the copies. Borough solicitor Todd Eisenberg assured Ledger she would get those recordings, which wouldn't be destroyed under the proposed resolution, Sherlock said.
To ease the concerned council members, Eisenberg will write a memo to the council explaining the process, Sherlock said.
Sharon Hughes, president of the Historic Morrisville Society, has been recording the meeting for years and suggested the possibility of donating the recordings to the local library or the historical society, Ledger said.
Hughes questioned the reasoning behind the sudden need to dispose of video tapes after years of being stored.
Sherlock assured Tuesday that disposing of the tapes has nothing to do with the public's request for copies of the recordings.
Since the issue was tabled, it will be discussed at the October council meeting.
September 22, 2010 02:10 AM
