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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCLD-001-12 Clarington REPORT MUNICIPAL CLERK'S DEPARTMENT Meeting: SPECIAL GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Date: January 27, 2012 Resolution#: (?P6-04(0-1:) By-law#: Report#: CLD-001-12 File#: Subject: WEBCASTING / PODCASTING OF COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT Report CLD-001-12 be received; and 2. THAT direction be provided as to podcasting of Council and Committee meetings. Submitted by: Reviewed by: J " att' rrie Franklin Wu, Municipal Clerk Chief Administrative Officer PLB/CAG CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T 905-623-3379 REPORT NO.: CLD-001-12 PAGE 2 1. BACKGROUND On June 20, 2011 Council passed the following resolution #GPA-431-11: THAT Report CLD-016-11 be received; THAT the Municipal Clerk's Department commence audio taping all Council and Committee meetings that are held in the Council Chambers, with the exception of closed meetings; THAT equipment be purchased to allow for the conversion of VHS tape to CD; THAT, in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, copies of the CDs be made available for purchase through the Municipal Clerk's Department at a cost of$10 each; THAT a copy of each CD be made available through the Clarington Public Library; and THAT staff continue to investigate the issue of podcasting and webcasting all Council and Committee meetings to the Clarington website and report back during the 2012 budget deliberations. Although staff has been audio recording the General Purpose and Administration Committee Meetings and Council Meetings since September 2011, it has not been an easy task. Initially, staff believed that the existing hardware/software complement could easily accommodate the request to tape the proceedings. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. To summarize, it takes one staff person the better part of the day immediately following the meeting, to transfer the VHS recording to multiple CDs. These CDs are then forwarded to Communications & Tourism for duplication. Although the duplication process is relatively straightforward (ie. the master disc and blanks are inserted into a duplicator) it can be time-consuming. Also, the transfer from VHS to CD-rom is not always true and there have been incidences where the masters could not be duplicated. It is also worth noting that the existing hardware or process has inexplicably failed to record all portions of a meeting or in one case, the entire meeting, thus proving to be unreliable. To date, none of the recordings have been borrowed from the Library, although a couple of Councillors have occasionally borrowed the Municipal Clerk's Department copy. The Library has received one enquiry from a member of the public for a video recording of a meeting. To investigate the webcasting and podcasting options for Clarington, Communications & Tourism and Municipal Clerk's Department staff have attended a variety of meetings REPORT NO.: CLD-001-12 PAGE 3 and information workshops regarding the recording of meetings and have discussed the subject with their counterparts in several municipalities. 2. RECORDING FORMATS 2.1 Video/Webcasting -A webcast is a media file (usually including video) that is available through the internet using streaming media technology. It can be distributed as live stream (in real time) or on demand. Video streaming requires significant bandwidth, a separate service, and therefore, is usually outsourced to a third party provider to house and index the files. The diagram below gives a simple view of how the process works (Diagram source: http-//rumler.com/video.htm). a n era st � � q Server Cowumer 2.2 Podcasting - Podcasting is a way of publishing audio and video files to the Internet. Podcasts are NOT in real time. Users have control over when and how they hear the recording. Podcasts can be downloaded to a computer or to a mobile/Smartphone device. Below is a simple diagram which was found through a Google Images search (the copyright information is on the bottom left corner). What is Podcastincy? tt recorded ro a c4rnpu;� Liam.dal yarn cc.rnwne W1� ffffff))))((ffffjj F61 irt�x Iwcs.okaa � /f �_ t t..tour.eirnz S"''l s.y f File i. f Qs e t+a Mf!R.ge f ,l Ueers wh4r:wr+err.«o �� tnwrner Svtweritrsy n, -'; ttdn..v ed�srnl �s�� Tnmt'n 1�p � j F'Lger—iF4A or ztl.c r-,V"-t.`[-.�Tam 0— REPORT NO.: CLD-001-12 PAGE 4 3. COMMENTS Staff has been researching webcasting since 2009 and has reviewed the actions taken by other municipalities who currently provide streaming video/webcasts of their Council meetings. The City of Ottawa began webcasting Standing Committee Meetings (www,ottawa.ca/city_-hall/webcast/committee/index—en.htmi) and Meetings of Council (www,ottawa,ca/city_hall/events/plug_in—council—en.html) in June 2011. Their records indicate fewer than 100 regular viewers of the streaming video (ie. live — in real time). The videos of these meetings are archived and reside on the City's website. The video is provided by Rogers TV. The Town of Markham Council and public meetings are web-streamed and audio recorded. The public can order CDs of specific meetings for a $10.00 fee. Meetings are not televised (Source: www.yorkregion.com; February 3, 2011 The City of Burlington implemented a streaming video/webcasting program in the Fall of 2009 — first as a 9 month pilot project. During the initial 9 months, approximately 20 — 30 viewers were recorded for each meeting broadcasted. Burlington owns their own equipment—their local cable company accesses Burlington's equipment to televise select meetings. Burlington has had to hire an additional person to operate and monitor the equipment. Their start-up budget (not including the staff person) was in the neighbourhood of$50,000 (2009). The Region of Halton webcasts all Standing Committee and Council meetings. Halton indicated that it cost approximately $71,000 for the required equipment and approximately $7,000 to their annual web hosting fees. To accommodate those with hearing impairment, all meetings are closed caption at an additional cost of $145.00/hour. (Note: close captioning was not mentioned or visible on any of the other sites visited by the Manager of Communications & Tourism). Further, Halton indicated that about 50 people viewed their meetings via webstreaming. REPORT NO.: CLD-001-12 PAGE 5 At a meeting with representatives from municipalities within Durham Region, staff discussed webstreaming, and the following chart indicates their actions at that time. Municipality Current Cable Currently Comments TV Webstreaming Broadcasting Town of Ajax Yes No No external demand at this time. Township of Brock No No No demand at this time. City of Oshawa Yes No Reported in February — looking to see if others are moving forward on this type of service. Seeking support to use Cable provider's equipment. City of Pickering Yes No No external demand at this time. Township of Scugog No No No demand at this time. Township of No No No demand at this time. Uxbridge Town of Whitby Yes No No external demand at this time. Region of Durham Yes Internal Only Implemented in 2011. External services under review. The City of Oshawa has just recently entered into a 12-month contract with an external service provider to proceed with a webcasting pilot project. The cost of the project is approximately $14,000. To minimize the capital expenditures for the pilot, and given that the cameras used by Rogers TV are not available for City use, they will utilize a single, stationary security camera currently installed in their chambers. They will not be providing closed captioning. In 2011 the Region of Durham implemented internal webstreaming of Standing Committee and Council meetings. They are currently reviewing the cost and implications of providing this service externally. REPORT NO.: CLD-001-12 PAGE 6 Our investigation of webcasting concluded that it is a very expensive service which could be viewed by any member of the public through the web, but would realistically be used only by a select few. This conclusion is demonstrated through the statistics provided by other municipalities as follows: Municipality Population Viewers City of Burlington 164,415 20-30 Region of Halton 439,526 50 Town of Milton 53,939 20-30 City of Ottawa 812,129 100 Thunder Bay 122,907 20-30 City of Oshawa 141,590 Anticipate 20-30 This conclusion led staff to assess the merits of offering webcasting as a service and to consider perhaps a more reasonable service which could achieve the same goal. Podcasting is a service whereby audio recordings of our Council and Committee meetings could be offered to any member of the public through our web, at a fraction of the cost of webcasting. None of the area municipalities within Durham Region, and beyond, currently offer this service to the public, and staff were only able to locate a few municipalities who currently audio record their meetings at all. One such municipality is the City of Vaughan. They record the meetings but do not offer access to the recordings through their website. Moving to podcasting would resolve staff's current struggle to record, transfer and duplicate our current audio recordings, and would enable the municipality to offer a new service with minimal cost and resources. Hardware requirements include a new recording device to replace the VHS recorder currently used. This equipment would work with our existing sound system and is estimated to cost approximately $900. With this new equipment, staff would essentially have a digital recording immediately following the meeting which could easily be posted to our Clarington website the following day. To further improve this service, for a cost of less than $2000/year, software could be acquired which would enable staff to bookmark the recordings. Thus a viewer would have the option to "jump" right to the discussion on the agenda item of their choice. As expressed earlier in this Report, the existing process for recording is extremely time consuming. Should Council wish not to proceed with either webcasting or podcasting, staff is recommending that the practice of audio recording meetings using the existing hardware and process be discontinued. The recordings are not being utilized by our residents and the staff resources simply are not available to continue, without sacrificing another service. REPORT NO.: CLD-001-12 PAGE 7 4. CONCURRENCE This report has been reviewed by Marie Marano, Director of Corporate Services and Nancy Taylor, Director of Finance/Treasurer who concur with the recommendations. 5. CONCLUSION Philosophically speaking, streaming video/webcasting Committee and Council meetings is thought to be an opportunity to increase transparency and accountability. It is thought that implementing a program like this will create the opportunity for residents to gain a better insight and understanding as to how their local government operates. In Clarington, Rogers TV only televises select Council meetings. Webcasting would provide a new and improved service of streaming all Council and Committee meetings, however, it comes at quite a large cost. Podcasting also provides an opportunity to increase transparency and accountability, and creates the opportunity for residents to gain insight and understanding of local government at a fraction of the cost of webcasting. Based on the foregoing, staff recommend that this report be received and that podcasting be considered during the 2012 budget process. CONFORMITY WITH STRATEGIC PLAN — The recommendations contained in this report conform to the general intent of the following priorities of the Strategic Plan: Promoting economic development Maintaining financial stability X Connecting Clarington Promoting green initiatives Investing in infrastructure Showcasing our community Not in conformity with Strategic Plan Staff Contact: Patti L. Barrie, Municipal Clerk List of interested parties to be advised of Council's decision - none: