Prince George’s County Council members are calling for an end to an informal policy that prevents some substantial council discussions from being broadcast on television and online.

Three of the eight council members said they are considering changing an unwritten rule they follow that only allows “official” council meetings to be recorded and broadcast. The council generally limits broadcasts to formal votes on bills, proclamations issued to residents and public hearings where the group takes public comment on bills — a policy critics say keeps important discussions hidden from people who can’t attend the daytime meetings in Upper Marlboro.

“This needs to be explored,” said Councilman Eric Olson (D-Dist. 3) of College Park, adding that he has pushed for more broadcasts of council business.

For most of the year, the council meets every Tuesday morning in Upper Marlboro. Portions of those sessions have been broadcast later that night on county public access cable for the past three years and began streaming live on the Internet on July 5.

Meetings can last for hours, depending on the agenda, and often include an hour of informal talks between the nine members that are not included in the taping. By the time viewers see the formal vote on a measure on television or online, every bill has been reviewed, discussed, amended and debated in council committee meetings that are held nearly every week.

“That’s where a lot of the details of legislation are vetted,” said Councilman Mel Franklin (D-Dist. 9) of Upper Marlboro, who also said he would like to make more council meetings publicly available.

In a statement, a council spokeswoman said the group considers some portions of its business to be “informal” and said that it could cost more to expand video taping and broadcast. Officials did not respond to requests to elaborate on the costs required to increase public broadcasts.

Currently, the council calls for the county clerk to shut off the camera during regular council sessions when the group convenes to have briefings, interview speakers and get updates on issues. Those meetings are known as “committees of the whole” and usually take an hour or more of the council’s day-long sessions.

The general rule has existed since the group began taping meetings more than a decade ago, said some longtime officials, though none was able to say why the rule was put in place. Council spokeswoman Angela Rouson did not reply to requests for comment regarding whether the limit was put in place over legal concerns.

The broadcast omissions came into question last month when the council began streaming meetings on its website.

According to statistics from the county’s information technology office, about 1,500 people logged on the site to watch the first live meeting, where members voted on routine bills for about 45 minutes. However, screens for home viewers went black for about two hours when the council started having discussions with nominees for positions in the county.

Meanwhile, those sitting in the council’s hearing room in Upper Marlboro could see a heated discussion that lasted more than an hour over County Executive Rushern L. Baker’s (D) nominee for the director of the Department of Environmental Resources — a discussion William Cavitt of Fort Washington wanted to watch.

“It’s a form of progress that they’re doing any streaming whatsoever,” said Cavitt, vice president of the Indian Head Highway Area Action Council, which has been calling for the county to operate with more transparency. “But for those seeking an open government that operates in the sunshine, it’s entirely inadequate.”

In a statement, Rouson said the county cuts costs by not broadcasting or taping committee meetings, though the group does record public hearings and discussions when the council meets to discuss health issues, a priority issue of Council Chairwoman Ingrid Turner (D-Dist. 4) of Bowie.

“Committee schedules are subject to changes, which make it difficult for scheduling a video recording crew and would raise costs for equipment and staff support,” she wrote in an email to The Gazette.

Rouson also said the committee of the whole discussions are not broadcast because they are “routine and less formal.”

That informality is what makes those group meetings so valuable to the public, said Thomas Dernoga, a former county councilman from Laurel.

“These meetings are where the members are asking questions and getting answers,” Dernoga said. “Those are the most insightful parts. The regular meetings are generally the chair reading the agenda.”

Franklin said that showing the committee meetings would go a long way toward increasing trust in the government.

“If we can technologically do it, we should,” he said. “The more the public sees of our process, the more they understand it, the more involved they will be.”

dvalentine@gazette.net