SOUTH RIVER — Residents who want to hear what is being said at the Borough Council’s business meetings will have to come out and attend them.

The council voted 5-1 recently against broadcasting the business meetings on local TV-35.

Councilman Rui Almeida had broached the idea, saying that this was part of his continued effort to make borough government more transparent.

Currently, only the regular meetings are broadcast on TV-35. They can also be viewed on the borough’s website.

Mayor Raymond T. Eppinger and other council members said they felt the broadcast of the business meeting was unnecessary, as they are informal and “laid back in nature.” They also said they worried about the workload on Art Londensky, who is the only person involved in taping the meetings and getting them on cable and online. He does so on a voluntary basis.

Almeida said the effort could become a partnership with the schools.

“I’m sure there are students interested in videography,” he said. “Art is not going to be in his position forever, he may retire and new people will come in.”

Council President John Krenzel said he was not in favor of broadcasting the business meetings.

“Too much information is not a good thing,” he said. “[At the business meetings], we discuss and argue amongst ourselves, it’s a more relaxed setting. If important, we bring it out to the regular meetings.”

Krenzel noted that the public is allowed to come to both the business and regular meetings.

“People can come to the business meeting without being on camera, and sometimes people do not want to be on camera,” he said.

Councilman Peter Guindi said he understood the concept of taping the meetings, but he would only support taping them if they could bring in students as interns or for a school project.

Eppinger said the issue is not about open government.

“There are no backroom deals, everything is transparent and gives people a chance to discuss,” he said. “All discussions are open and decided two weeks later.”

Almeida said he was not implying that there were any “backroom deals” being made.

“This allows the public a chance to see in a variety of ways how decisions are made,” he said.

Resident Ryan Jones told the mayor and council that they could look into setting up a recruitment effort for anyone interested in working with Londensky on TV-35, and told them that he would be willing to help out. Jones said he believes it is important to broadcast the meetings, noting that some people just can’t make it to them.