Go live, council

WATTLE Bank’s Geoff Ellis believes live streaming Bass Coast Shire Council meetings may be the key to improved community engagement.

Mr Ellis said it was difficult for many residents in the shire to go to Wonthaggi – and in some instances Cowes – each month to be involved in council’s decisions, which leads to a lack of consultation across the shire.

With the National Broadband Network (NBN) on its way to Wonthaggi, Mr Ellis said it would be beneficial to consider uploading council meetings to the internet so residents could watch online.

Mayor Cr Jordan Crugnale said this was discussed early in the current council’s term, and that council was open to exploring different avenues to connect with residents.

However, Cr Crugnale was unsure whether the internet would be adequate at each council venue.

“Meetings can go for more than two hours, which is quite lengthy. We also have council consultations at several locations so we would have to take the equipment around the municipality,” she said.

“We’d also need to include closed captions so hearing impaired residents would have access as well, but it would be good for residents to be able to view the meetings on demand.”

Mr Ellis suggested council use microphones to enhance sound quality on video, similar to the microphones used by South Gippsland Shire Council.

“This would give residents an insight into how council functions. They’d be able to see how council interacts and would be able to gain a better understanding about what the councillors believe and why they make certain decisions,” he said.

“It would mean an increased number of people would be interested in what council was doing and there would be more engagement.”

Council’s communication and engagement coordinator Christian Stefani said while full meetings could not be viewed online, council had been experimenting with Facebook to reach out to residents and increase engagement levels.

Tech age: Wattle Bank’s Geoff Ellis said live streaming Bass Coast Council meetings would result in better community engagement, as residents could easily access the meetings on their devices.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Jun 28 2016. Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry