(2nd in a series of posts on City Government)
As announced here a month or so ago, the City Council meetings are now being video’d. They will be streamed live starting in a few weeks and, as of now, also archived on the Council web site.
Mrs. Kelchner’s great minutes of meetings have always been available shortly after each meeting (and Gadfly hopes that doesn’t stop), and within the past year audio of the meetings has also been available.
But now video!
When Gadfly announced this big step late last year, he wondered aloud if it would have any effect.
He was hoping that it would encourage more awareness of the issues before and the process of city government.
A wise but cynical head experienced in city politics, however, ventured that the video would have a chilling effect on Council, making it less likely that Council members would talk much, especially explaining their positions on votes.
Now that is chilling were that to happen.
Council meetings are the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 7PM (competing with “Entertainment Tonight” and “Hardball” and “Martha MacCallum”).
January 2nd’s meeting was not televised live, but it is available on the City Council Meetings page.
Go take a look.
You can see feeble ol’ Gadfly make a public comment early on (min. 10:25), an interesting exchange between Gadfly #1 Stephen Antalics and President Waldron (approx. mins. 23-25), President Waldron’s annual report (min. 27:55), and then President Waldron’s comment on an important issue (min. 32:50), as well as comments by other Council members on that issue (min. 40:38) – an issue to which Gadfly will return in a subsequent post.
There is one casualty of the leap to video – Owen Gallagher, my videographer, has been put out of a job. Well, almost. Gadfly and Owen will still try to provide some video value by providing edited sections of meetings on the blog, making it handier for followers to focus on specific parts.
