To allow video or not? Serino faced dilemma at public forum

ALBANY - A public forum held by Dutchess County Sen. Sue Serino on Tuesday night got heated after one of her critics tried to videotape the event and was told he couldn’t by the senator — and then by a police officer.

Mert Melfa, 58, of Poughkeepsie, said he went to the Putnam County forum held by the freshman senator to videotape her responses to the public’s questions. Melfa said he’s grown disenchanted over Serino’s positions after taking office last year, particularly in regards to the gun-control law, the SAFE Act.

“All I wanted was to get her on video answering questions from the public,” Melfa, who has protested against her and filmed the protests, said Wednesday.

In the video Tuesday and in a statement Wedneday, Serino, R-Hyde Park, said she was trying to give the public the opportunity to talk to her without it being videotaped, contending that the state’s Open Meetings Law did not apply to the event.

She said she would allow tape recordings in the future if “they do so fairly, honestly and responsibly.”

Serino has been holding “community conversation” events in the district that stretches across Dutchess and Putnam counties.

“As a state senator, I am proud to host a number of community forums throughout my district which are meant to encourage casual, informal conversations and are held to provide residents with the opportunity to speak their minds openly and freely on issues that affect themselves and their families,” Serino said in the statement.

“Prior to last night’s forum, I sought legal counsel and was advised that the Open Meetings Law did not apply. And, to ensure that this open dialogue was preserved, an individual was asked to stop filming,” her statement continued.

She said in the statement that she strongly believes “in a government that is open and transparent. However, confronted with the scenario we faced last evening, I did not want to put my constituents in the position to be bullied or intimidated.

“As we move forward, I will work very hard to ensure that anyone who wants to record the proceedings be given that opportunity in hopes that they do so fairly, honestly and responsibly.”

In the video, Serino, then a local official and then a police officer asked Melfa to stop using the camera.

After Melfa asked if he faces arrest, the officer responded, “At this point, you are pushing that line. Yes.”

Then the filming stopped.

Melfa said the videotaping is legal under the Open Meetings Law because a majority of the Putnam Valley town board was there.

Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, said it’s not a clear-cut answer on whether the filming was allowable under the Open Meetings Law.

If the majority of the board was there in its official capacity as “a public body,” as the law states, then it would fall under the Open Meetings Law, he said.

But Serino’s camp believed that the board was mere spectators, and thus the videotaping wasn’t allowed.

“To my mind, the question was whether a majority of the town board was functioning as a body. If it was, anybody could have recorded it,” Freeman said.

But in this case, “I don’t know of any law that someone had either the right to record or that someone could have been precluded from doing so,” he added.

Nonetheless, he said public officials should expect to be videotaped at public events.

“I understand that some people might feel intimidated, but I don’t know that it recognizes the reality that we are recorded all the time — knowingly or otherwise,” Freeman said.

Joseph Spector: JSPECTOR@Gannett.com. www.twitter.com/gannettalbany