CC 09/27/2021 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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CASSELIIGRRY CITY COMMISSION Minutes of September 27, 2021 — Regular Meeting Page 14 of 18 Commissioner Albritton: - Noted that the annual costs were covered in the presentation and the City had millions of dollars budgeted for other projects. - Questioned why providing another means for those who could not attend the meetings due to health, family or other reasons would not be feasible. - Felt the plan the City had in place to proceed was feasible and a great test by starting small and possibly expanding the service in the future. - Stated this would be an extra avenue for residents to be informed. - Felt that this was absolutely the right thing to do and urged his fellow Commissioners to vote in favor of live streaming with the understanding that the City would be providing access to people who could not currently attend for various reasons. Commissioner Meadows: - Does not feel that concerns about perfection should keep the City from moving forward. - Felt that live streaming of the City Commission was progress, and he is proud of what the City Commission and staff do and the more visible and available to the citizens, the better. - Was pleased with the cost as presented and trusts that staff did sufficient research and the costs as presented would get it up and running. - Reminded everyone that the budget had just been approved tonight at approximately $80 million and the City would also be receiving approximately $11 million in federal funds, so finances was not the issue. - Felt there is not enough interaction between the citizens and the City government, and he felt that this was incredibly important so the citizens could be informed and could make their wishes known in the matters coming before the City Commission so decisions could be made with those wishes in mind. - Stated lie has confidence that staff has taken a conservative approach and it will be done right, and things can be adjusted later, as needed, and if it ends up having a negative impact, lie would be willing to stop live streaming; however, he does not anticipate that happening. - Stated he was not judging the feasibility of live streaming on how many people would be watching, but on how many people would have access to the meetings through live streaming if they wished to avail themselves of it. - Was 100% in agreement that leaking ADA compliant agenda packets available to the public was the most important thing, even more so than the live streaming of the meetings. Mayor Henson added that he agreed that the ADA compliant agenda packets were very important. Vice Mayor Busch: - Stated his biggest concerns were cost, ADA compliance, and how many people would use live streaming, but agreed with Commissioner Meadows that the service should be implemented to see how many would use it. - Briefly shared how government television access had impacted him as a young man. - Stated he would support live streaming at this time. - Noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had changed the way many things were done and there were more remote/virtual meetings and people working remotely from home, so he was in favor of taking a shot at it to see how it turns out. Both Mayor Henson and Vice Mayor Busch expressed that they had thought the cost would be excessive, possibly into six figures, and were very surprised at how inexpensive it will be.