Idaho's most important elections are won in the primaries. If you want to have a say in how Jerome County is run, you have to vote in the primary.
Every Jerome County meeting should be streamed, recorded, and posted — because transparency should be more than talk.
Transparency should not be a favor the county grants to the public. It is an obligation the public is owed — and the tools to meet that obligation cost almost nothing.
Jerome County already holds the public meetings the law requires. What it does not consistently do is make those meetings accessible. Working people cannot drop everything to attend a Tuesday morning meeting to find out what their government is doing to their land, their tax bill, or their rights.
When meetings are not streamed, not recorded, and not archived with searchable agendas, the public record becomes whatever the minutes say — and minutes are often posted weeks later, summarized in ways that lose the actual discussion.
Most Jerome County public meetings are not currently live-streamed or video-recorded. Residents who cannot attend in person have no practical way to observe what their government is doing.
Idaho’s Open Meetings Law (Idaho Code Title 74, Chapter 2) requires public meetings to be open to the public and meeting minutes to be available for public inspection. Streaming and recording are not required, but they are entirely consistent with the spirit and purpose of the statute.
Recording is cheap. Streaming is cheap. The only thing expensive about transparency is the cost of not having it — in lost trust, in lawsuits, and in bad decisions nobody caught in time.
A county commission that treats its own meetings as hard to watch has made a choice. I would make the opposite choice, on day one.
Every regular meeting of the Commissioners and P&Z Commission, live — using tools the county can afford today.
Archive each meeting with timestamps so residents can jump to the agenda item that affects them.
Full agenda packet online at least 10 days before any significant vote. Plain-language summary after.
A standing quarterly report to the public on notice, posting, and recording compliance. No more black boxes.
Every claim on this page is grounded in public law, public records, or directly observable public conduct.
"Every meeting should be streamed, recorded, and posted. Every time. No exceptions."— Jerry Holton