The Willow Glen Resident Council chambers get wired for video (finally) Meetings will soon be available for home viewing By Cecily Barnes San Jose may have the Tech Museum, the San Jose International Airport and a nifty Web site, but it remains one of the only cities in Silicon Valley without publicly broadcast city council meetings. But that will soon change. At the San Jose City Council's Dec. 15 meeting--which was the last meeting for Mayor Susan Hammer and councilmembers Trixie Johnson and David Pandori-- the council okayed a conceptual plan for the installation of video equipment in the council chambers. "Right now if somebody wants to know what's going on in the city, they have to either rely on news reports or go to the meetings," said Tom Manheim, public outreach manager for the city of San Jose. "Soon, people will be able to sit at home and watch on television." The completed Council Video System project will include increased lighting, five cameras controlled by robotics, and an electronic system that digitizes agendas and presentations to be displayed on screens flanking the council dais, as well as screens built into the dais itself in front of councilmembers' seats. All of the equipment will be controlled by one person during the meetings. The meetings will be telecast by TCI over Cable Channel 36A. When San Jose's council meetings are finally broadcast, the city will fall into step with Saratoga, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and many other cities that have been broadcasting their meetings for years. San Jose residents say it's about time. "Many times when you're down there and you have to get home for one reason or another, there's no way to follow what has happened or what is happening," says Kris Cunningham, president of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. "A lot of times it's not covered as well as it could be on the television. This way people can tune in." According to Manheim, the equipment and its installation will cost a total of $623,000, most of which will come from settlement money paid by Pacific Bell after the company dropped cable service in San Jose last year. Once the system is installed, it is projected to cost $220,000 a year to operate. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, December 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.