Spokane Valley makes it easier to watch council meetings online, but says no thanks to live TV

Spokane Valley’s new website has made it easier to watch council meetings online, but the city has no immediate plans to arrange a live TV broadcast.

Mayor Rod Higgins said it’s important the meetings and information from the city are easily accessible, though he joked he can’t imagine many would watch the council meetings on TV.

“It is important to us that people know what we are doing,” Higgins said, adding that he’s not sure why Spokane Valley has not pursued a live TV broadcast.

The Spokane Valley council meetings are streamed live online via Spokane Valley’s website, www.spokanevalley.org. A click on the SVTV button in the lower right-hand corner takes viewers directly to the video page, which is compatible with computers and smartphones. The meeting videos are recorded and stored on the city’s website, where they may be accessed later.

Spokane Valley’s City Council meetings are shown on cable channel 14, Community Minded Television, the following Monday at 6 p.m.

That’s the same time the city of Spokane shows its City Council meetings live on Spokane City Cable 5.

“The city of Spokane runs its own full-fledged cable TV station as part of the communications department,” said John Delay, director of Spokane City Cable 5. Delay said the station produces lots of other content and carries many different board and commission meetings during the week.

Delay said anything recorded by City Cable 5 in Spokane City Council chambers is also streamed on Spokane’s website, www.spokanecity.org.

City Cable 5 is carried as part of Comcast’s franchise agreement with the city of Spokane and funded partly by public, educational and governmental fees, or PEG fees, collected from cable customers. The city of Spokane Valley doesn’t get those same fees.

“We also feed the city’s website and we feed the social media accounts,” Delay said of Spokane’s TV broadcasts.

Spokane Valley does not maintain any social media accounts, though councilmen Ed Pace, Arne Woodard, Sam Wood, Chuck Hafner and Higgins have Facebook pages.