All articles on these pages are copyrighted by their original authors. If you are interested in carrying one of these stories on your website you must contact the original author of the work.
All News
Puyallup City Council Stamps Approval on Broadcasting
October 30, 2008
Puyallup residents, fire up your television sets. The city council meetings are coming.
The council Tuesday night made three authorizations to City Manager
Gary McLean that allow plans for television and Internet broadcasts of
the meetings to take place by January.
The authorizations ended several discussions and delays to the project, to the delight of several council members.
"When I went out to talk to the public, this was one of the
highest priorities," council member Rick Hansen said of the broadcasts.
"I think you'll be able to reach out to us easier now."
"I think televising is a good thing and I'm glad we're
going forward with it," council member Kathy Turner added. "I'm glad we
dragged this through the budget process instead of just putting it on
the table."
The council voted in August to delay implementation of a
$40,000 camera system and $60,000 in software, citing budget concerns.
That equipment, along with annual membership dues to host network
Rainier Media Center, are now included in the proposed 2009-2010
budget.
The city is also assuming the costs of airing the meetings,
rather than passing them on to residents. A proposed surcharge of 25
cents per cable subscriber had been considered.
McLean said the chambers are already wired for the system,
and the cameras should be installed once they arrive in four to six
weeks.
Full implementation of streaming media software from
Granicus should be ready for the first broadcast. The software should
eventually allow users to search through particular items in a council
meetings, and it's also designed to prevent network crashes on
government Web sites.
Ron Tiedeman, the city's director of information
technology, explained that Granicus can also be linked to existing city
software so citizens can access various documents. It may also help
with downloading documents that, in the past, were handled by city
employees.
McLean said the cities of Bellevue and Kirkland also use
Granicus software, and explained that it's essential to keeping
Internet archives working properly.
"Without it, we're quite sure we're going to have a number
of customer complaints that it's not functional," McLean told the
council.
Reach Reporter Neil Pierson at 253-841-2481 ext. 313 or by e-mail at neil.pierson@puyallupherald.com
Neil Pierson
http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=91047573
Media Coverage
