RulesCommunications Highlights 2012 0626

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Digital Recording of Committee Meetings 2 May 14, 2012 digitally recorded meetings available through the City's website and the top 10 accessed meetings. During the pilot program, staff reviewed the time it takes to set up the necessary equipment to digitally record a meeting outside of the Council Chambers. Public Works staff's experience has confirmed that it takes an hour to properly set up and take down the digital recording equipment. At the April 24, 2012 Rules and Communications Committee meeting, staff requested annual funding up to $5,000 for a part-time Maintenance Aide position to support the expansion of digitally- recorded Council Committee and Commission meetings. Committee members expressed interest in expanding the program, but wanted less costly, less labor- intensive options. To achieve the Committee's interest in recording additional Council Committee meetings, while limiting staff time and cost, staff recommends that all Council Committee meetings to be recorded be held in the Council Chambers. There are a number of benefits in utilizing the equipment that is installed in the Council Chambers. These include: • Meetings will be available to the public live • Each agenda item will be tagged in the recordings so that users will be able to jump to a specific item without having to listen to the entire meeting • Meeting Highlights can be abbreviated, thereby allowing a faster turnaround of Committee Highlights and recommendations and reduced staff time in preparation of the highlights. For meetings held outside the Council Chambers, such as Commission meetings, the portable digital recorder purchased in January 2011 can be utilized. The quality of the recordings will not be as clear as meetings recorded in the Council Chambers. For special meetings, such as the Council Retreat, Facilities or Information Technology staff will set up the recording equipment with microphones to insure a quality recording. Staff further recommends moving to action -type Highlights of Committee meetings. This change is consistent with the conversion to action minutes for City Council meetings after the implementation of digital recording. The Rules and Communications Committee previously requested that staff look into streamlining the reporting out of Council Committee Highlights and recommendations. Moving to action minutes for Council Committee meetings would result in more timely submission of Committee Highlights and recommendations for the City Council agenda. CONCLUSION It is recommended the Rules and Communications Committee forward to the full City Council a recommendation to move all City Council Committee meetings to the Council Chambers in order to digitally- record Council Committee Meetings for inclusion on the City's Website, and to move to action -type Highlights of Committee meetings.