Speaking of subcommittees…
What I said in the previous post about the importance of the school committee subcommittees where much of the real work of the body takes place is also true for the city council. By checking out the City of Lowell website under Government, I was able to find out how many (24, none of which appear to be ad hoc), what type and who is on the city council subcommittees. (By the way, it would be nice to see the same kind of links for subcommittees, agendas and member biographies for the school committee as are available for the council.)
The city council, much to their credit, does broadcast subcommittee and board meetings on LTC Channel 10, and these are available on the LTC website as streaming video. I just watched a fascinating broadcast of the Finance Subcommittee from last week. I guarantee you’ll become a fan of the City Auditor, Sheryl Wright, who has worked heroically to uncover bizarre accounting snafus and bookkeeping errors that go back years and sometimes decades (outstanding checks going back to the ’80s, IRS penalties for non-filing of W-2 forms, etc.). It’s really worth watching, which is another reason why we need these meetings aired.