Continued debate on proposed audio and video policy in county buildings

Houston County commissioners decided at Thursday’s meeting to remove it from the table until further changes can be made, where it will then be brought back and voted on.

After incidents with people who call themselves “First Amendment auditors” coming into buildings and filming, Chairman Mark Culver proposed the policy that would limit audio and video recording without prior permission. The policy has faced some opposition from commissioners who worry it would infringe First Amendment rights and cause issues with media.

Commissioner Brandon Shoupe suggested his worries lie with possible interferences on media, but he still hopes to prevent anyone purposefully attempting to cause trouble inside the buildings. He made no specific mention of the changes that would be made.

“The concerns that I have is anything that interferes with the media’s ability to cover an elected body, so as long as we can eliminate all that, and prevent people from coming into a public building and doing whatever they think is legal, I’m fine with that,” Shoupe said in an interview. “We are not considering this because of the general public. There’s a very small segment of the population whose objective is to escalate, to initiate confrontation, to cause disruptions and we can’t have activities like that.”

Shoupe said that he did not want to take action to prevent bad things from happening and in turn prevent the media from doing its job. “People have a right to know what’s going on in these meetings, so that was a big concern.”

Culver highlighted the recent events this week in Washington where rioters stormed the Capitol during the confirmation of the Electoral College votes, saying there are some things are public property that “have to be protected,” but he would be hearing all objections and concerns regarding the policy.

“You can’t just open up everything to everybody; you need a policy,” Culver pointed out, making it clear that general meetings would always be open to the public. “We want to table it again until we are ready and are sure it’s constitutional.”

The commission also considered a request to eliminate three positions in the Houston Co. Sherriff’s Department, all within dispatch, with the plan to use to salaries to raise the pay of current dispatchers. It was noted that even with the increase in salaries the department would come in $7,385 under the total cost of the three positions in question, which could be used in other areas.

All other proposed items on the agenda were approved to move forwards into Monday’s meeting. These included:

• Request to approve the budget amendment for EMA pass through grant 20FIL.

• Request to approve budget amendment for Poly, Inc. change order for solid waste disposal project at Industrial Park.

• Request to remove from the table and approve agreement for housing municipal inmates in the Houston County Jail.

• Request to sell specified items on GovDeals which include assorted office items from Probate, assorted shop items from Road & Bridge, a 2005 Ford Explorer, and a 2007 Chevy Impala from EMA.