Twentynine Palms council approves $21,483 AV upgrade to comply with SB 707

Twentynine Palms councilmembers voted unanimously to approve a $21,483.92 purchase to upgrade the council chambers' audio and video systems to meet new state requirements under Senate Bill 707.

City staff told the council the package, from Rat Sound System, moves the chamber from analog audio to a digital Dante codec and enables video encoding over IP. ‘‘Senate Bill 707 goes into effect in July. July 1, we have to have this in place,’’ a staff presenter said, framing the upgrade as a compliance necessity and noting vendor warranties and onsite training were part of the justification.

The city described the procurement as a sole-source deviation because the chosen vendor could supply both enterprise-grade audio and video components with the necessary warranties; staff said training and post-sale support from AV Pro and EarTech will save roughly $4,000 in training costs. A resident urged councilmembers to adopt the plan and to ensure remote public-comment functionality is available when the policy that implements the new technology is developed.

Councilmember Wright moved to approve the purchase and Mayor Pro Tem Scott seconded. The motion carried on a 5-0 vote; the mayor recorded an abstention only where a conflict applied to a separate consent item. The council authorized payment at the time of order and directed staff to continue developing related public-participation policies.