North Royalton to replace Zoom with recorded BoxCast sessions; no livestreaming planned

The Special Review & Oversight Committee discussed plans to replace the city's Zoom-based meeting process with BoxCast recordings that include closed captioning and will be posted on the city website the day after meetings.

"BoxCast will have the meetings on their website making it more accessible for residents to view and listen to meetings," Chair Mary Gorjanc said, adding she believed recordings might be stored for one year. Clerk of Council Helen Dunlap responded, "Video will be available on the city’s website the following day," and said the current understanding is recordings will be stored for three months while IT checks whether longer retention is possible to comply with records schedules. When asked about livestreaming, Ms. Dunlap said there will be no livestreaming; Ms. Green clarified, "there is no livestreaming with Box Cast."

Committee members discussed which boards would use the system. Ms. Dunlap said she expects the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals to use the BoxCast device; she did not know whether the Recreation Board would adopt it. Ms. Gorjanc said the installation was hoped for by the end of February but is now expected in March.

The committee emphasized access benefits — captioning and next-day posting — while noting limits on live access. Ms. Dunlap said Zoom would be discontinued once the new system is live. The committee did not take a formal vote on procurement at the Feb. 3 meeting; staff will continue work with IT and vendors to finalize schedule and retention details.