July 20, 2018
Live streaming of City Council meetings now available
SACHSE (July 20, 2018) Full citizen engagement at the local level has long been the best and most effective way to make lasting and significant changes for the average citizen, and the Sachse City Council has made it easier to accomplish that.
Following a full upgrading of technological assets at City Hall, all City Council meetings are now being streamed online, and an archive of recorded meetings is being built to ensure that citizens can either follow along in real-time or refer back to previous meetings.
These improvements are essential to how the City moves toward full participation and complete transparency, says City Manager Gina Nash.
“Citizens are affected by every level of governance, but none as much as the decisions made at the local level,” she said. “From street repairs to parks improvements to developing economic opportunities, the actions taken at individual city halls around the country affect people’s lives on a daily basis.”
Hearing, seeing and understanding why and how decisions on these and other important topics are made at the local level moves the City of Sachse closer to its constituents, allowing citizens to follow the debates, discussions, deliberations and votes on those issues.
“While newspapers and social media sites allows for citizens to read about these important decisions, those reports can sometimes come with incomplete or one-sided opinions,” she said. “Whereas when citizens see and hear how individual Council members, staff members and other presenters are actually making their comments or asking questions, it gives a deeper level of context that can’t be easily shared any other way.”
Citizens can stream City Council meetings by visiting www.cityofsachse.com/CityCouncilMeetings. The archive of previous meetings, available only as far back as the implementation of this new system, will grow as meetings are added. Both the Workshop and the Regular Session are captured and indexed, making it simple to locate discussion on specific agenda items.
“The process is fairly simple, and anyone who has watched CSPAN or other live streaming programs will be familiar with it,” added Nash. “Like CSPAN, we are committed to lifting all impediments to active citizen participation and engagement. This process has the full support of the Council and staff, and our expectation is that citizens will make use of the technology.”
Individuals who do not have access to a computer or other mobile device, may visit the local library and log on. There is no password necessary, and the streaming is available anywhere there is an internet signal.
In addition to the streaming service, the City Council has adopted a new agenda presentation service, making it easier and more user-friendly to review both the Workshop and Regular Session agendas and background information packets. The new service will be implemented in early fall.
City Council meetings are held every first and third Mondays of the month, starting with the Workshop at 6:30 p.m. and the Regular Session at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise stated.