Council fails to live stream any meetings despite policy adoption

THE  City of Greater Geelong has not live streamed any of its council meetings through ­social media despite adopting a policy to do so last September.

Geelong Mayor Bruce Harwood. Picture: Supplied

THE  City of Greater Geelong has not live streamed any of its council meetings through ­social media despite adopting a policy to do so last September.

Councillors will review the issue of live streaming at council’s next meeting after ­responding to a series of questions from a resident during Tuesday’s night’s community focus committee meeting.

Mayor Bruce Harwood said the city had not bought the technology required to live stream the meetings, despite the adopted policy stating meetings would be broadcast live this year.

The issue of live streaming will be considered at council’s next meeting on April 24.

City’s executive manager (of) governance and legal services Rebecca Leonard would not specify the cost of equipment needed to live stream meetings, but said several cameras needed to be bought.

“We don’t currently have the equipment required to ­record and stream council meetings,” Ms Leonard said.

“Some of the equipment needed to live stream would include several cameras, audio-visual computer software and lighting.”

Cr Harwood said council had been continuing to provide “live updates” through Twitter.

He said seven tweets had been posted during the council’s previous meeting, to ensure a degree of transparency and accessibility for community members unable to attend meetings in person.

The move to live stream meetings was approved by then-administrators last year after recommendations from the Citizen’s Jury to publicly broadcast the city’s key ­decision-making.

Last September, then chief administrator Kathy Alexander said the live streaming of meetings on Facebook would provide an unedited view of council decision-making and hold councillors accountable for their actions.

“Council is keen to be as ­accessible as possible in its ­decision-making process, and this is yet another way to achieve this,” Dr Alexander said.

It was expected audio-­visual technology would have been installed to allow live web-streaming and archiving of all meetings from this year.

Originally published as Council fails to live stream any meetings despite policy adoption