One of the most significant changes to Brookfield government that I have been a part of is televising the meetings of the Council, Plan Commission and annual budget meetings. It was a highly controversial topic at the time, but I think it turned out well.
Televising was approved in concept on October 7, 2003. The first video recorded meeting was June 15, 2004. Televising was expanded to include the Plan Commission and annual finance meetings on October 5, 2004. (By the way, those are links to my aldermanic web site where searchable copies of almost all council minutes from April, 2000 to the present are publically available. Due to the volume and size of the pages, a link is the easiest way to make it available to you.) There was always opposition to televising from some aldermen due to fears of excessive cost, the potential of grandstanding, etc. As with all legislative acts, it took a lot of work to build a majority and every vote counted, not just mine.
The meetings may be viewed on cable channel 25 for several days following the meeting. On request, you may view a past meeting at the City Clerk's office in City Hall. For a small fee, you can get a DVD copy of the meeting.
At the April 15, 2008 council meeting, I made a referral to expand the televising of meetings. That means the city staff and the appropriate committee (in this case it will start in Finance) will study the idea and decide what to do about it. The referral was:
To: Mayor Jeff Speaker
Date: April 10, 2008
Re: Meeting Audio / Video Streaming
This is a service request / legislative referral I will make at the April 15, 2008 Council meeting.
I request the City study expanding televising of city meetings.
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Expand the televising program to all official meetings. This may be a phased implementation, but a specific program should be outlined, funded and scheduled.
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Allow real time (live) internet based audio or video streaming of certain meetings. Council and Plan Commission meetings would be good candidates. The City of Waukesha telecasts the Council and Plan Commission meetings live. Waukesha County Supervisor meetings are audiocast.
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Allow video streaming on demand for past meetings. If YouTube can do it, so can we.
Here is a link to a PDF of the submitted referral: Referrals_20080415_Televising.pdf
There has been a continuing problem with the sound for meeting. This is mostly due to the fact that the aldermen do not speak directly into their microphones. Due to the arrangement of the desks, aldermen in the front row tend to turn around to talk to their colleagues which means they are facing away from their microphones. There has been some discussion of remodeling the council room to arrange the desks into a horseshoe so that everyone will naturally look toward the audience which will also be towards their microphone. There is no specific plan to do that now, though it may be part of the study I requested.
By the way, the television equipment was paid for with fees from Time-Warner Cable Company. The cost of room remodeling is always tax dollars.
