While Port McNeill’s Aug. 19 council meeting has come and gone with no staff report on live-streaming options, don’t expect to see the topic coming back up anytime soon.
The town’s Chief Administrative Officer, Pete Nelson-Smith, noted he was not able to “get a report done in time for that council meeting and with other strategic priorities at the forefront, I requested a deferment of the report until further notice from my chair.”
Port McNeill Mayor Gaby Wickstrom stated the chair “will request a report when we have the capacity. Other priorities at the forefront are: hiring a CFO, website request for proposals and subsequent work needed once chosen, two rezoning requests before the APC, the Downtown Improvement Initiative and a host of other items. It will be addressed, but since we don’t have the capacity on our site it has been temporarily set aside.”
As for the Regional District of Mount Waddington (RDMW), Chair Andrew Hory responded by saying the RDMW “doesn’t have any current plans to live stream its meetings as the present configuration and size of the board room make it impractical.”
He continued, pointing out that “At some point in the future the RD office will be expanded to include a larger board room and at that point offering a live stream record of public meetings would be more feasible. In conjunction with that, some policy will have to be crafted as there are distinct rules that govern how such images are broadcast and stored – for example there has to be a place in the room where those members of the public that do not wish to be filmed can still be present and participate.”
Rest assured, Hory says he is definitely onboard with the idea of streaming meetings. “As the board chair I welcome any opportunity and mechanism we have to make local government more transparent so I certainly would support it when it becomes viable.”
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