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Committee asks staff to study hybrid meetings after IT presentation on streaming history and risks
Summary
Following an IT presentation on the borough’s streaming history, equipment upgrades and pandemic experience, the ACT committee voted to investigate hybrid in‑person/virtual public participation, ask staff for cost estimates and draft policies, and place a memo on the August work session.
Bill, an IT staff presenter, summarized the borough’s progression from audio recordings (2014) through pandemic Webex use (2020) to current Facebook and YouTube streaming and recent equipment upgrades, including a $20,000 webcam and additional microphones. He laid out major considerations for allowing real‑time virtual public participation: security (bad‑actor interference), meeting control and moderation, registration and verification procedures, technical needs and cost, and potential effects on in‑person attendance.
"Security, we wanna guard against bad actors interfering with our meetings… Meeting control, we wanna continue to control our proceedings," Bill said. He recommended a cautious, staged approach and suggested initial pilots at committee meetings.
Residents and council members debated pros and cons. Eric Lorgas and others recommended forming an ad hoc committee to study the process and fix problems with the current Facebook Live stream before scaling up. Some members expressed concern that hybrid access could lengthen meetings and require stricter moderation rules.
The committee voted to move forward with investigating hybrid meeting options and recommended staff prepare cost and policy recommendations for the borough work session; recorded committee support was a small majority (2 yes, 1 no). Staff will return with a memo and cost estimates to the August work session and may propose an ad hoc study group.
