That the agenda item summary from Alice Johnston, Corporate Officer, dated January 6, 2015, regarding a request from Director Forseth in relation to the possibility of webcasting meetings, be received. Further, that staff investigate costs for webcasting meetings and report back to the Finance/Budget Committee on March 5th, 2015
Four days later - I was interviewed by the local radio station on the above Resolution. Read more here
At this past Thursday's CRD Finance/Budget Committee meeting - CRD Staff did present their report on webcasting of CRD Meetings. Read that report here (look for Item 5.1)
After some discussion - the Committee agreed to receive the report and thus rejected moving forward on webcasting of CRD Board meetings, at this time
Two themes came out of the Committee's discussion to reject webcasting:
a) Cost to webcast meetings (the least expensive option was $10,500 + $2,000 for a camera) and benefit to taxpayers for the cost involved was not evident
b) Concern that some Directors' might 'grandstand' at meetings, rather than focus on the matter at hand, if meetings were to be taped
As I said this morning on my CRD Area 'D' Director FB Page - given the discussion that took place at the Finance/Budget Committee meeting this past Thursday - I am not planning to further pursue the topic of webcasting of CRD Board meetings at this time...
~SF
2 comments:
Congratulations Steve,on attempting to bring some transparency to CRD meetings,it is disappointing,but NOT surprising that your fellow directors want to use any excuse that they think holds water,in denying your motion.public scrutiny of council meetings would go a long way in keeping their constituents apprised of issues affecting them...just keep putting it out there and perhaps "public pressure" will force them to show us what we voted for and how effective they are as a representive of our interests.
Too bad! For may of us living out of town, this would have been a great option to stay informed and follow the meetings. Relatively low cost factor for keeping the meetings transparent and getting the public educated on what's happening. I do understand the "Grandstand" argument, but think the novelty of being part of a live broadcast would wear off rather quickly.
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