Saratoga News
News
Kline's 'vision' of online video of city meetings is coming true
By Jason Sweeney
If you think city council meetings make for compelling viewing, you are in luck. It's only a matter of time until those take-no-prisoners Kevin Moran Park public hearings and those lengthy discussions on curb repair will be available for viewing worldwide.
When Mayor Norman Kline is out of town, he'll be able to pull out his iPod and watch what his fellow council members are up to. One of Kline's goals as mayor is to move Saratoga toward offering more services online and more "e-government" solutions.
At its regular meeting May 17, the Saratoga City Council agreed to authorize City Manager Dave Anderson to execute an agreement with Granicus Inc. to provide video streaming and related services and equipment for the city's website. The council voted unanimously for the more expensive of two options offered by Granicus. That option includes a $27,026 one-time cost for equipment, installation and training, and a $1,450 monthly maintenance fee.
The council preferred the second option mainly because it included a "media vault" that would be located locally and would provide storage for archived video from meetings. The media vault was said to save time and money because city staff could research archived footage more efficiently. Instead of fast forwarding or rewinding videotape or skipping around on a CD, a researcher could run a search of a topic online and then click an indexed link that goes straight to video footage in question.
"This is going to make everyone's life so much easier," Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith said.
When the software is up and running, streamed live video of meetings will be available for viewing on the city website. The meeting agenda would appear in a split screen next to the video, or the user could switch to full screen. After a meeting has finished, the video would be archived and indexed with hypertext links of agenda items and minutes topics that link to corresponding video footage.
According to a report prepared by City Clerk Cathleen Boyer, city council and planning commission meetings would continue to be broadcast live on KSAR Channel 15. The proposed system from Granicus would show a live feed from KSAR on the website. The video would then be archived and indexed, available for later viewing on the website.
Thao Hill, the western regional director for Granicus, provided a demonstration of his company's product at the city council meeting on May 17. "It's kind of like TiVo for government access," he said. "It's a fully integrated record of what occurred during the meeting."
Hill showed how the city of Cupertino has video available on its website of a surprise appearance by Steve Jobs at a city council meeting.
Granicus is a 28-employee corporation located in San Francisco. It was founded in 1999 to provide public information through the Internet. The company's goal is to provide and manage live and on-demand streaming media content for local governments.
Ben Cheng, the information technology analyst for the city of Saratoga, has been managing the city's website for the last five years. "If a resident was out of town, or if there is a specific item on the agenda they want to know about, they could click on our website and view it live or in the archives," he said. "It's pretty good software. It actually helps me a great deal. Other cities are considering it.
"On my end, I have to make sure that the system is up and functional."
