Delay in meeting broadcasting costs the city
Parksville council will go ahead with streaming their meetings and archiving them online. After two years of debate and freezing portions of their budget, they will now have to use their contingency fund to do so.
After the city hall forum was updated with audio and video equipment in 2010, council began talking about broadcasting meetings and looked for a company to stream and archive the video and index it for searchability.
“I’m really delighted to see this finally going forward,” said Councillor Carrie Powell-Davidson.
She said it fits perfectly with their moves to be as accountable and transparent as possible.
Coun. Al Greir said he would not support it because nobody will watch it, “it’s like watching paint dry,” adding council has to start getting serious about austerity.
Coun. Bill Neufeld countered that he agreed about the budget, but that transparency and clarity trump that.
A staff report at that time said the best option was a $5,000 a year from Ottawa-based iSi Global, but council rejected an initial streaming recommendation from staff, asking for cheaper and more local options.
After a second, extensive report comparing over 30 potential services, neither of the local companies could provide crucial indexing or searchable services and council went with an Ottawa company, then changed their mind before the final vote.
Council sent out a third request for proposals in March of this year, but by the time the proposals came back, the lowest was now up to $8,148 per year, which was higher than the $5,000 that council froze in their latest budget.
The report from staff stated while the bid from NeuLion is above their budget, it “is within reason for the costs borne by other municipalities and significantly lower than the two rejected proposals.”
Council voted to go with the Burnaby-based company for three years, with only Greir voting against and Sue Powell absent.
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