C-NET aims to bring transparency to local government. Should more entities take part?

C-NET, the government and educational access network for Centre County, films and broadcasts local government meetings in attempt to keep residents informed about what’s happening in their community.

But despite growth in the services, some municipalities still decline membership proposals that C-NET presents at the start of each year to areas where residents or officials have expressed interest. In the case of Benner Township, supervisors have even rejected a resident’s offer to pay the $10,000 program fee. Spring Township also declined involvement for 2025, citing conflicts with meeting times.

Cindy Hahn, C-NET’s executive director, said that the access network typically extends proposals to agencies, authorities and municipalities where residents have expressed interest in greater transparency, or to entities that have directly contacted C-NET about the usage of its services.

“I’d like to think that the services we provide are extremely important and valuable to both our members and their constituents,” Hahn said.

C-NET provides its services to 17 entities in Centre County: College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton townships, Bellefonte and State College boroughs, Bellefonte and State College Area school districts, the Centre Area Transportation Authority, Centre County Government, the Centre Region Council of Governments, the Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority, Penn State, the Schlow Centre Region Library, the State College Borough Water Authority and the University Area Joint Authority.

Hahn hopes that more partners will be added in the coming years, and noted interest expressed in the Bald Eagle and Penns Valley area school districts.

Christopher Santini, Bald Eagle Area’s superintendent who was hired by the district last April, told the CDT that the school district received a 2025 membership proposal from C-NET. While he acknowledged C-NET’s value, Santini said that he’d rather see the district’s board meetings broadcast another way.

“I believe C-NET has some things to offer,” Santini wrote in an email to the CDT. “However, due to the cost of the service, and the fact that we broadcast our own events through our Eagle Ambassadors YouTube channel, we did not move forward with membership. If we decide to broadcast board meetings in the future, I would prefer our students get the experience of running the broadcast on our YouTube channel rather than paying an outside entity to do so.”

C-NET in Benner, Spring townships

At a Benner Township Supervisors meeting in early December, supervisors discussed — and effectively declined — resident R. Thomas Berner’s offer to pay for C-NET fees if the supervisors voted to add the services.

The estimated cost per year for each municipality is $10,029. That includes the cost of recording and airing 12 of the member’s monthly meetings, along with the cost of posting 12 bulletin board messages per year.

Township supervisor Kathy Evey wrote in an email to the CDT that the township’s two other supervisors, Larry Lingle and Randy Moyer, didn’t entertain a motion to accept the membership proposal, meaning no vote could be taken.

Evey, however, wrote that she will continue to support “any means that brings good communications to our residents and others outside of our township.”

Moyer did not respond to a request for comment, while Lingle said he was “not interested” in commenting on Berner’s offer or his lack of interest in the township partnering with C-NET.

Berner said he also hasn’t been given a reason for supervisors not considering his offer. He’s brought prepared checks with him to a number of meetings, but said he’s been given a firm “no” every time.

“I really don’t know why (the supervisors) won’t accept the check — they haven’t given me a concrete reason yet and I find that to be concerning,” Berner said. “It seems to me that the community here has a strong interest in bringing C-NET in, and in my opinion, if we had C-NET here, I feel like some of the concerns that have been brought up here regarding transparency would go away.”

One of those issues was raised in October, when Evey accused her fellow supervisors and longtime township secretary Sharon Royer of hiring someone to perform transcription duties without providing ample notice to the public, and violating one of Pennsylvania’s open meeting laws.

Despite the supervisors turning down Berner’s offer, Evey vowed to continue working to find more ways to bring transparency to the township, even if it isn’t through C-NET.

“To some extent, our quarterly township newsletter helps with (greater transparency in Benner Township), however, it would help to have other ways to get the word out to our public,” Evey wrote. “One solution might be a citizens committee who takes turns attending meetings and reporting back to the public over the web.”

At a Spring Township supervisors meeting also on Dec. 2, a 2025 C-NET membership proposal was listed on the meeting agenda for discussion, but the agenda item was passed over almost as quickly as it was brought up, despite a resident speaking up in support.

Participation would have required supervisors to change their meeting date, and the township decided not to accept the proposal.

The proposal stated that “due to a very busy production schedule on Mondays, C-NET is not able to commit to another meeting that night,” and that the township would need to move its meeting to the second or fourth Tuesday or Wednesday night of the month.

What services does C-NET offer?

The services that C-NET offers includes the recording, airing and live streaming of several public meetings on a number of platforms, with the two most popular being C-NET’s online options — its website and YouTube page.

Typically, a meeting recording is uploaded to the website within 48 hours of it taking place.

C-NET’s YouTube channel also provides member agencies with the option of live streaming their meetings. The recorded meetings can also be viewed on television through Comcast channels seven and 98, or the CGTV and CETV networks.

In addition to its recording and streaming services, C-NET also provides entities with the opportunity to post upcoming meeting dates on the access networks bulletin board, which can be viewed both online and on Comcast channel seven.

“Our partnership with C-NET has been a very successful one,” Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said. “It’s been particularly helpful in providing people with a means of watching our meetings without having to physically be there, which we know can be a challenge for some people.”

Higgins also remarked on C-NET’s ability to increase transparency in member entities, which is something that both Hahn and Melissa Melewsky — media counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, of which the CDT is a member — agree with.

“PNA has long advocated for increased transparency from government at all levels, and proactive public access efforts can help make government more open and accountable,” Melewsky wrote in an email. “Nothing can take the place of in-person public meetings where people interact with their public officials, but streaming meetings or putting them on local cable channels can augment the transparency requirements of the Sunshine Act. ... Local governments should take steps to make public meetings (and public records) as accessible as possible because government functions best when it is aided by an informed and involved citizenry.”