Very few people can make it to the Executive Plaza in downtown Williamsport on a Tuesday or Thursday morning to attend a County Commissioners Meeting. Not many more have the extra time and energy to go to a public location to review a proposed county budget. But good news is here! The county is as close as your smartphone or computer.

Those who follow this column know that the debate on live streaming the commissioners’ meetings has been debated for the better part of a year now. I received some negative feedback for disparaging this with a satirical article, primarily because I have attended hundreds of these meetings in the past four years and can attest that they consist of about 95 percent routine procedural matters, and maybe five percent of significant topics or interesting debate. From a cost/benefit analysis standpoint, it did not seem worth it.

But the commissioners came up with a very satisfying compromise. They now film the meetings with one camera and microphone and then post it on YouTube. This is as low cost as it can be, and it allows county residents access to the meeting proceedings at their own convenience.

The listing on YouTube is “Lycoming County Government,” and the first listing is “Nov 14, 2019, Public Meeting.” Be aware. This is not a Hollywood production. The camera is fixed on the three county commissioners who are flanked by the county solicitor J. David Smith and the county’s administration manager, and it does not move through the entire program. Quite a few people are addressing the commissioners through this meeting, and all you hear is their voice. It is one hour and twenty-three minutes long, so you will need a big bucket of popcorn to get through it all. But it works, and that’s what counts. If you are a regular reader of County Hall Corner and wonder what actually goes on for real, here is the chance to check it out.

The other new feature in county government has to do with reviewing fiscal documents such as the county budget. In the past, it was necessary to go to locations such as various area fire companies to attend a public review of the budget or go to the James V. Brown Library or county commissioners office itself to get a copy to examine.

But now it is possible to review the budget from the comfort of your own electronic device. Opening the county’s website, lyco.org, highlights a bold heading, “Budget Public Outreach Meetings.” There is a sentence in the first paragraph that states, “The 2020 proposed budget is available on Lycoming County’s new fiscal transparency portal, OpenGov.” The “OpenGov” is a link, and clicking on it takes the reader directly to the budget.

Reading budgets can be a cure for insomnia, but even to a cynic such as myself, OpenGov makes it rather exciting. There are pie charts that clearly and simply outline where the funds are going. It is possible to choose between line graphs, pie charts, column bar graphs, and more. Care to compare last year’s budget to this year’s? How about the last five years? It is amazingly simple to use, and even a little fun. One thing is for sure; there will undoubtedly be more people looking at the county budget than there ever were before.

And that is what all this is about. More folks will be able to see a County Commissioner meeting or review a county budget at their own convenience. Do not forget, also, that past columns of County Hall Corner are available on this paper’s website, webbweekly.com. It is important to be informed and engaged, because as Thomas Jefferson reminded us, “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

Larry Stout welcomes your comments or input. He can be reached by email: lionwebbweekly@gmail.com.