2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                  6 AUGUST 2019


C.      Receive a report from the Chief Executive Officer on current and proposed legislative
        changes to the Local Government Act by the State Government that will impact on
        Council’s governance arrangements; and
D.      Receive a report from the Chief Executive Officer on any other matters in the Notified
        Motion that will enable Councillors to consider the costs, practical implications and legal
        aspects of the issues raised in the Notice of Motion.
This report deals with items 8, 9 and 12 of the notice of motion.
Notwithstanding the notice of motion presented to the Council meeting in June 2019, this report
was required to be provided to the August round of Council meetings as it has been six months
since Council began live streaming its General Committee and Council Meetings (including
Special Meetings) and making the video recordings of those meetings available to the public for
viewing at a later time.
Council will recall that on 20 December 2018 when the decision was made to live stream/video
Council meetings, Part F of the Council resolution included the following:
F.      Request the Chief Executive Officer to provide a report to Council after six months to
        review the technology and practices of the live video streaming and for Council to
        determine at that stage whether to extend the live video streaming technology to the
        Committee Room and/or the other committees;
This report has been prepared in compliance with the December 2018 Council decision as well
as the deferral resolution made in June 2019.

1.      Review of live streaming video operations
The live streaming of meetings commenced in February 2019. Staff undertook considerable
testing and research to ensure that the technology worked well. Research on other Councils told
us that while picture quality was important, sound was critical and significant research was
undertaken to ensure that audio quality was of a good standard.
The technology was installed in January 2019 and tested prior to going live. Careful attention was
paid to the location of the camera to ensure the privacy of community members attending the
meetings was maintained as well as addressing staff concerns about privacy. The location of the
camera now allows all Councillors and the CEO to be “on camera” while staff and community
members are not generally visible on the camera footage.
For the information of Council, we were able to establish the videoing system at a relatively low
cost compared to other Councils. I would like to acknowledge the excellent work by our ICT staff
in researching the technology and overseeing its smooth installation.
Final costs for the system were as follows:

 Item                                                          Cost (excl. GST)
 Camera                                                                 $1,364
 USB microphones                                                          $396
 USB extension cable                                                      $197
 Industrial USB hub                                                       $206
 Streaming deck                                                           $143
 OBS software                                                               $0
 Cabling work (electrician)                                               $755
 Portable camera for recording of offsite meetings                        $147
 Total:                                                                $3,208**
** Not including staff time which was considerable.


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