Port Stephens Council has completed a review of its code of meeting practice to reinstate webcasts of its fortnightly meetings.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As one of the council’s first acts after the election it voted to bring the cameras back into the chambers.
As part of that process staff proposed that the video files be deleted from the website after a three-meeting cycle.
“In accordance with council’s resolution on October 10 webcasting will include proceedings of council meetings,” governance manager Tony Wickham said.
“Further, with a limit of the last three council meetings recordings being maintained on council’s website, given there is a cost associated with the number of meetings stored on the website.”
Cr Paul Le Mottee supported the reintroduction but questioned the wisdom of the timing.
He said the state government was about to hand down a list of requirements on councils to implement the service.
“I made inquiries about this last week and I think we’re wasting our time,” he said.
“But I’ll stand by my previous comments, let’s get it done.”
Related reading:
Cr Giacomo Arnott seconded the changes to the meeting code to bring the webcams back, though he questioned how it could cost $55 to store a single meeting online for a month.
“It’s outrageous, considering how cheap web hosting is these days,” he said.
“Is there capacity to review this contract?”
Mr Wickham said he believed so as the council had not had difficulty cancelling the contract when the council abandoned webcasting in 2012.
Cr Arnott said the service would serve residents well.
“It will serve as a means to regulate the behaviour of councillors,” he said.
“People being able to see what’s happening in the chamber will help them see if they’ve voted the right way or if they need to vote differently next time.”
Cr Jaimie Abbott also questioned the need to delete webcast files after a set time.
“I was quite surprised by the three meeting limit as well,” she said.
“I was quite surprised with this given the cheap cost of cloud storage these days. I would hope that we could keep them up there longer, especially for people that might have gone on holiday for an extended time and want to see what happened when they got back.”
Cr Ken Jordan expressed concern that councillors might use the cameras to their advantage particularly at election time and wear political T-shirts.
The general manager advised that the council had a dress code and suggested that ‘Vote 1’ T-shirts would not be suitable attire.
The motion to reintroduce the webcasts was carried and is to resume in the new year.
