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San Juan council meetings to be shown online

12/07/2011

Audio and video recordings will be available on the city website under a new contract with a webcasting service.

San Juan Capistrano, California - San Juan Capistrano will show recordings of its City Council meetings online after the council voted unanimously Tuesday night to contract with San Francisco-based Granicus Inc. to perform the service.

The contract will cost 18,246 upfront and $12,924 annually. The deal was approved for a term of 18 months.

The council struck down a proposal to include a $10,000 allocation for two new 50-inch televisions to be installed in the council chambers at City Hall.

Currently, the city's website has only text agendas and minutes of meetings. The database is not searchable, and links to PDFs are listed chronologically.

With the new webcasting service, council meetings will be recorded and made available on the website in audio or video. Recording each meeting costs about $129. Agendas can be integrated with any kind of media, and all materials will be collected in a database accessible through a keyword search. Granicus also offers other features the city may opt into, including RSS feeds and live broadcasts.

Granicus supplies similar services to about 250 other municipalities in California, including Dana Point, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita.

"It's a need, not a want," said San Juan Capistrano Councilman Sam Allevato. "We are probably at the lower end of delivery of these types of reports to the public."

Councilman Derek Reeve said he is pleased that one of his campaign promises about making government more accessible is going to be fulfilled.

"We have so many people coming to ask for CDs and audio," Reeve said. "And that's something they'll no longer have to do."

Source:
By Frank Shyong, fshyong@ocregister.com
The Orange County Register