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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Web cast, broadcast of council meetings likely in future

Web casting or broadcasting the Spokane Valley City Council meetings might be on the menu in the near future after a discussion of the various options during Tuesday’s meeting.

The first no-frills option could include live broadcasting of council and planning commission meetings, but meetings would not be rebroadcast, said IT specialist Greg Bingaman. The estimated $48,000 start-up cost for equipment could be covered by the city’s cable franchise agreement with Comcast.

A second option would get the city its own cable channel for live broadcasts, rebroadcasts and other programming with the start up costs again covered by the franchise agreement. Adding Web casting would cost the city $40,000. A third, more expensive, option would use GovTV for live broadcasting and live Web casting, but none of the $79,646 start-up costs or $54,896 annual costs would be covered by other sources.

Mayor Rich Munson said he was in favor of adding some sort of live coverage of meetings as soon as possible. “We have some very important issues coming up,” he said, citing the city center and Appleway development as examples. “What we’re doing now isn’t working. We have a huge challenge to reach as many people as we can.”

The city should probably explore both cable broadcast and Web casting, said Councilman Bill Gothmann. “To reach the older generation, probably TV broadcast is the way to go,” he said. The younger generation is increasingly using the Web, but not everyone owns a computer.

Councilman Steve Taylor questioned the need to do the project now when the city needs to address other financial needs like street repair. “I don’t think we should go forward with this project at this time,” he said.

Councilwoman Rose Dempsey said it is important to let people know what is going on, but noted that some households like hers have satellite TV and not cable. “I am very much for broadcasting,” she said. “For my house, Web casting would be best.”

Munson said a good first step would be to Web cast the meetings, then offer the recording to Channel 5 for rebroadcast. “It’s not for us,” he said. “It’s for the city. I think it’s worth the money. If we can get this down to a lot less than we’re seeing here, I think we can be cost-effective.”

The council directed Bingaman to get more detailed estimates for review at a future meeting.

In other business, the council voted to provide $30,000 to Star USA to help the company put in a bid to host the 2010 USA Figure Skating Championships. That same year the Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, B.C.. “In an Olympic year, this is a totally different event,” said company representative Barb Beddor. “This event determines our Olympic team. The proximity of Spokane to Vancouver is not lost on anyone.”

Susan Meyer of the Spokane Transit Authority gave a presentation on the May 20 ballot measure that calls for permanent renewal of a three-tenths of one percent sales tax that was approved by the voters in 2004. The number of riders has increased since then, and new commuter routes have been added, Meyer said. If the tax isn’t renewed, items that might be cut could include weekday evening service, Sunday and holiday service and special event service, she said. The council will have a public hearing on the issue at the April 8 meeting.