Stonington Board of Finance Broadcasting & Transparency Workgroup

Citizen Led

The Board of Finance (BoF) in the Town of Stonington, CT are all elected officials.
It is also the only town board comprised of elected officials in the town that is not available livestreamed or recorded. There are boards and commissions in the town made up of non-elected members which are streamed/recorded. This is evidence that this is absolutely doable for our BoF.

It is also important that our boards, especially elected ones such as Board of Finance, Board of Education, and Board of Selectmen, are all available and accessible to the public. The people they are there to serve. BoE and BoS are both streamed and recorded. BoF is the only of our elected boards not made accessible and transparent in this way. At some point, we have to ask “why?”

Having run for the Board of Finance and spoken with my neighbors and community members, I’m well aware that most of the residents of the Town of Stonington have no idea what's going on at these meetings, as they are:

  1. unaware of the meetings & times (they're all listed on the town website)

  2. unable to make the meeting times (7-11 pm)

  3. unable to physically get to the meetings

This is a problem. We should all be, and WANT to be, informed members of our community, especially about how our money is being used.

We, the people, have begged for this for YEARS now. Disabled folks, parents with kids, people with jobs, folks who don’t have transportation, and people who would just appreciate the convenience.
Well, now a citizen-led, grassroots workgroup has started to address this, and other important issues. And I’m so here for it!

Want to help move Stonington in the direction of progress, and, ok… maybe not into the future, but into the present?
Drop your email at bit.ly/bof-broadcasting to join your neighbors and get information and action items on how to be a part of getting this done!

Most of the work that I do in this arena is unpaid; it is work that I do because it matters deeply to me, impacts me personally, and absolutely lights my fire. That said, I would like to say that disabled folk, as much as anyone else, deserve to be paid for their work. My work should not be held up as an example of how disabled folk should work for free for causes we care about or that matter to us.

With that in mind, if you appreciate the work that I do and would like to support it and me, you can Buy Me A Coffee or join my Substack