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Curious what the Spokane Valley City Council looks like on a 52-inch plasma high-definition TV screen? Want to zip past the long-winded council member reports, with a click of a mouse, to the meat of the agenda?
It could happen.
The City Council last week directed city staff to gather more detailed facts and figures on the price of hiring a consultant to find out just how much it would cost to broadcast meetings over the Internet and/or cable television.
When the same topic was discussed in the spring of 2008, council members learned it world likely run in the $100,000-a-year range. That amount proved to be too much for the majority of the council, despite the urging of Mayor Richard Munson.
“We’ve made ourselves available to the public, and yet we have example after example where the public says they don’t know what we’re doing,” he said.
Greg Bingaman, city information technology specialist, said that an initial outlay of up to $200,000 would be needed for cameras, switching equipment and other hardware to put the meetings on air. Much of that money, however, could come from Comcast, whom the city is partnering with under a franchise agreement that got its first-reading approval on Nov. 17.
Under the franchise agreement, the cable company has authority to maintain and operate its system through the city, but it also allows for grant money to be presented to the city for broadcast purposes.
Any money that Comcast provides, however, wouldn’t cover any broadcasts over the Internet, which could allow for repeat viewings and technology that would allow users to skip around the agenda to the parts of the meetings viewers are most interested in. Instead, Comcast would only show video on a preselected channel at certain times of day.
Bingaman advised, however, that the city shouldn’t move forward with any production with the idea of trying to do it inexpensively.
“If you’re going to do this, you should jump in with both feet,” he said. “People expect to see quality.”
Munson said he hopes the City Council next year would be supportive of the idea. He and Diana Wilhite were both voted off the council on Election Day, and it is unknown whether or not their successors would be interested.
However, Munson also said he is doubtful that the idea will gain any traction with the new council. When the subject was discussed last year, Council Member Gary Schimmels – who was recently re-elected – thought the cost was too high.
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By
Craig Howard
