Agenda Item 8CAGENDA ITEM # 8C
JANUARY 28, 2013
STAFF REPORT
City of Atlantic Beach
Commission Meeting
Agenda Item: Videotaping Commission Meetings
Submitted by: Keith Randich, IT Director
Date: January 14, 2013
Strategic Plan Link: N/A
Budget: None
Summary
A motion was approved at the December 10, 2012 Commission Meeting asking staff to
analyze eMeeting systems, their costs, and potential savings. This report addresses
three separate topics related to these systems:
1. Capturing the meetings on video and making them available for viewing.
2. Giving visitors to the City's website the ability to do keyword searches of
meeting agendas, meeting minutes, and other documents online.
3. Acquiring agenda creation software for use by City staff.
Background
The City studied capturing meeting on video in a staff report presented to the
Commission on August 10, 2010. Recently, an informal study team was formed by
Commissioner Carolyn Woods to update that report. The team consisted of
Commissioner Woods, citizen volunteers, and me. This report includes the input from
the study team and the previous staff report.
Video Capture of Commission Meetings
Many municipalities have started videotaping their Commission meetings under the
auspices of government transparency. Current technology allows the video to be
viewed live over the Internet. When the meeting has finished, the video can be
indexed to the agenda for quick playback selection, and posted to the municipality's
website.
There are three basic options available for recording the Commission meetings:
1. Tape by a videographer
The City would hire a local videographer to record each meeting. The
recording would be uploaded to a vendor to post online in the days following
the meeting. The videographer would have the capability to pan the room,
zoom into speakers and the overhead projector. This is the only option that
AGENDA ITEM # 8C.
JANI lARY 28, 2013
would allow the City to tape meetings and functions in a variety of locations.
However, it's the only option that would not enable an index associated with
the meeting's agenda,
2. Tape by a single fixed, camera
A single camera would be installed in the Chambers, and tied to an encoder
that would upload the video of a meeting in real time. The camera would be
focused on the dais. The video would be viewable over the Internet live, and
after the meeting would be indexed to the agenda. This would allow a
viewer to select the video of specific agenda item to watch rather than fast -
forwarding through the entire recording.
3. Tape by multiple adjustable cameras
Multiple cameras would be installed in the Chambers, and connected to a
camera switch, An "editor" would review each camera, and select the shoat
that displayed the speaker, event, or overhead projector graphic. The
selected video would be passed to an encoder that would upload the video of
the meeting in real time. Each camera would have the capability to have a
number of preset locations, allowing the editor to zoom in on a specific
speaker or room view with the touch of a button. The editor could be a City
staff member in attendance at the meeting, or a vendor viewing the meeting
remotely. The video would be viewable over the Internet live, and after the
meeting would be indexed to the agenda. This would allow a viewer to
select the video of specific agenda item to watch rather than fast - forwarding
through the entire recording.
Online Keyword Searches of Agendas, Minutes, and other Public Records
An issue that was raised by the informal study team concerned the difficulty that
citizens and Commissioners had searching the City web site for documents. Currently,
the agendas and minutes of all meetings are posted to the City website, and archived to
the Laserfiche Document Management system. Access to the Laserfiche application is
only available to City staff.
The search capability of our current website is very rudimentary. Entering a keyword in
the website search window will return matches on all vvwuw.coab. LIS website pages,
website forms, web archives, and documents stored on the site. No ability exists to
narrow the search to a specific document type. Civic Plus, our website vendor, is
promising improved searching capability in an upgrade planned for the 2 "d quarter of
2013.
Laserfiche is the software that the City uses to archive its documents. All minutes,
agendas, agreements, building plans, permits, and other records that the City must
store to meet record retention requirements are electronically captured in the Laserfiche
application. The application's strong point is its ability to be searched by a variety of
criteria: keyword, date, document name, document type, and others. The current
AGENDA ITEM # 8C
JANIJARY28.2013
installation of the product limits access to these physically inside the City's network.
An additional module that the City can acquire allows access to the archive through the
City's website. Anyone with access to the Internet could have access to City records,
and more importantly, the searching capability of the Laserfiche product. Examples
can be viewed at:
Sebastian, FL httj): ifwww .cityofsebastian.org/weblink$/
Palm Beach Gardens, FL littps://egov.pbgfl.com/WebLink8/Welconie.asp
Agenda Creation Software
A variety of companies market software to government agencies that assist in the
creation of meeting agendas. Staff members input proposed items into the agenda, the
City Manager- reviews the items and approves them for inclusion in the agenda.
Supporting documentation is collected with the agenda items. When the agenda is
finalized, the agenda "package" is delivered to the Commission members. Many of
these agenda creation offerings contain add -on capabilities that extend into the meeting
itself, such as voting tabulators, motion /second capture, request to speak parcels,
paperless options, commissioner note capture, mobile device viewing, and integration
with the meeting video capture.
Currently, the City Clerk manages a process where staff places proposed items in a
specific folder on the City file server_ The Clerk and City Manager review the items and
finalize the agenda for an upcoming meeting. Although most of the add -on capabilities
noted above are lacking in the Clerk's process, the agenda package is created on a
regular basis with a minimal amount of effort on the part of the staff.
The study team assembled to study the video recording investigated an agenda
creation product from NovusAGENDA. Novus shared with the team a cost saving
spreadsheet that claimed the City could save over $30,000 annually. The dollar
amount was calculated rising the estimated time spent by City staff in producing and
distributing each agenda, as well as taking queries from citizens and Commissioners
unable to perform their own keyword searches of past meeting notes, agendas, and
other public records. A closer comparison of the actual time and effort spent by staff
on these tasks negated almost all the savings claimed by Novus. Time spent by staff
locating documents on behalf of citizens and elected officials remains a valid issue, but
is better addressed by improving the website searching instead installing an agenda
creation product.
Budget
Video Capture Costs: Cost estimate of each option is attached.
Online Keyword Search Cost: $15,000 for the Laserfiche Weblink module and $2,000
annual support
Agenda Creation Software Gast: Ogre -time $750 plus $350 /month
AGENDA ITEM # 8C
JANUARY 28, 2013
Recommendation
Each of the three items reviewed can be considered and implemented independent of
the other items. Since none of them have been budgeted in the 2012 -2013 fiscal year,
a budget modification would have to be approved for each item.
Video Capture Recommendation: Multiple adjustable cameras would give the highest
quality video recording, while providing citizens with a searchable, indexed agenda from
each meeting. if the Commission elects to move forward with videotaping meetings,
they should select one of the multiple camera options.
Online Keyword Search Recommendation: Installing the web module for the Laserfiche
application on the City website would provide the most capable tool to website visitors
for document searching. City staff already stores virtually all documents that have a
public record retention requirement in Laserfiche, so no further effort would be required
to make new documents accessible through the website. When documents are posted
on the City website today, staff has to take the extra step of uploading each file to that
site. Making the Laserfiche application available to website visitors also gives them the
ability to use advanced searching tools when attempting to locate City documents.
Agenda Creation Software Recommendation: Although some of the additional features
that are available with agenda creation software would help formalize the creation of the
agenda and subsequent commission meeting notes, those features would not translate
to any significant savings to the City.
Reviewed by City Mana �e
Videotaping Commission Meetings
Options
Upfront Cost
Staff Required
Service
Monthly Cost
1st Year Cost
Features
Drawbacks
I
No upfront cost; ability to
Charged to tape each event
Minimal - Post
use service in multiple
($200), no live viewing, no
Outside Videographer
None
Meeting
Granicus
$730
$8,760
locations
indexing
I
Live feed, indexed video,
Single Fixed Camera
$5,000
Minimal
Granicus
$660
$7,920
unlimited meetings
Lowest quality video
Addl staffer is
Live feed, indexed video,
Multiple Adjustable
required for
;high quality, unlimited
Add'I staff member required
Cameras - Local Editing
$25,000
editing
Granicus
$868
$35,416
meetings g
($104 /meeting)
Live feed, indexed video,
30 meeting/ year limit
Multiple Adjustable
( high quality, no staff
Editing by Swagit ($120 /
Cameras - Remote Editing
$30,000
No
Swagit
$935
$41,220
required
meeting)
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