Below is an update on this issue from an email I recieved today from an anonymous source:
City videographer, Patrick Ricciardi, who was taping the last BOE meeting in an interview minutes before the City Council meeting tonight relayed the details of the problems leading to the loss of video and also his release from further duties by BOE Superintendent Carter via email earlier today.
Apparently, the video problems are part of a code issue although still retaining the audio portion. Unfortunately software tools from the hard disk manufacturer for the special hardware were not successful in fixing the video corruption. Another source confirmed to us via email that Patrick had conveyed concern about the video problems a couple of days after the meeting. The hard drive in the cartridge mechanism, approximately 170 GB goes back to 2007. It is used for every single city event.
My comment: It is a shame that these technical difficulties had to occur at such an important meeting. Normally, Beth Mason's videographer would perhaps have another copy but it turns out according to my source that he was at the Spelling Bee filming that event. It is also a shame that Patrick Ricciardi, who I find to be a nice enough person, lost his duties for this part time funcion as a result of this. Interim Superintendent Carter is at least holding people accountable.
Original Post 12/2/2009: One reader who follows the Hoboken Board of Education quite closely sent me an email on the last regular BOE meeting where key parts of it were missing in the edits as shown on channel 78. The parts missing were the audit report findings, test scores and voting. Pretty much those were the key parts of the meeting. Here is their comments on this...
First Hoboken had Diner-Gate and now BOE Water-Gate?
I have contacted the KF board members as well as the administration. They were shocked to hear of this as they worked diligently to present this to the public and were finally able to get the meetings aired consistently on ch. 78.
There may be many reasons for the editing to occur, but my strong hypothesis would be that someone does not want those reports presented--and it certainly was not Mr. Carter nor KF, as this was the first time scores were presented and a thorough explanation of the audit given.
- Anonymous
My comments: There is more to this story and I intend to present more than one side once I get a chance to talk to a few more people. It could be just an accident but I know that more people than just my poster were upset that the full tape was not presented on channel 78. I think a solution would be to go to live streaming like the City Council meetings as well as present the tape to channel 78 going forward.
Here is how fellow wise-assian and wonderful graphic contributer Graphix_Avenger feels about the missing portion of the BOE meeting:
From Graphix_Avenger: Click to enlarge
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