New Equipment and public information resources at City Council

The number of people attending City Council meetings in Soda Springs has been increasing regularly so far in 2024, and a range of new equipment and information resources is hoped to help continue that trend moving forward.  The city recently acquired a range of telecommunications equipment, paid for out of the General Fund, and gave it a test run at the most recent meeting on March 6.  

Some of the improvements are designed to make the council’s work more efficient, some to provide those in attendance access to more of the information under discussion, and some to allow for those who are not able to attend the meetings to have access to the proceedings.

According to City Clerk Hannah Beer, “new tablets were purchased so that paper can be conserved, and a large TV monitor was installed in the Council room to ensure transparency with the public.”  

In addition to conserving paper, the tablets are useful during meetings as the members of the council can use them to quickly and easily display documents in their possession for everyone to see.  Oftentimes, there is information which one of the members has been sent that has to be printed for distribution or explained in order to provide its context for the other members and audience.  This material can now quickly be made public.  Through teleconference protocols, information of that sort can also be screen-shared to the video recording.

The functions of the TV (which was in its early troubleshooting phase during its first outing) will be several fold.  It can be used to allow for those joining the meeting as speakers to be displayed more conveniently for those in attendance through Zoom, Google Meets, or similar platforms. 

More important, it will allow members of the City Council to display contents they are discussing in a digital form during the meeting sessions.  For example, maps of locations in question for Planning and Zoning discussions, grant areas, and other issues can be made visible to everyone without the need for printing physical copies to be passed around.  Documents such as letters, statements, MOUs, contracts, and others will be able to be displayed so that discussions about them will involve the full context they require to be understood fully.  The TV will also allow for video to be streamed, and websites to be examined during the meetings.

An OWL device, which is a 360 degree camera used primarily for teleconferencing, has been installed as well.  The device records and broadcasts video and audio.  It has the unique function of swiveling (like an owl, hence the name) to record whomever is speaking at the time and display them on screen.  

The features of the OWL have begun to be used to record material for live streaming during the meeting, as well as archive meetings on the City’s YouTube and Facebook pages.  The March 6 meeting is available to be viewed on the YouTube page already, and, frankly, is more entertaining than you might expect.  Some of the things that do not come through as clearly in print reports such as the newspaper and the official minutes come through clearly on recorded media.  For instance, the speaker’s tone and emphasis adds a great deal of context to what happened during the meeting and how the exchanges between speakers occurred.  There are also physical components to some of the information elements presented, and those are also captured through the video feed.

Another benefit to the new setup is that it creates an archive of meetings for preservation and future reference.  Reading through old reports of minutes can be very time consuming, while meeting video can be scrubbed forward and backward to locate specific moments much more easily.  While I hate to admit it, video and audio capture also minimizes the potential for a transcription error.  It will at least allow viewers to see and hear what those present in the room saw and heard.    

Another move toward increased attendance and transparency has been undertaken by Councilmember Paul Gritton, who has been posting meeting agendas online and encouraging citizens to attend.  According to Gritton, “The February 7th meeting had zero citizens attending. Prior to the February 21 meeting, the agenda was published on social media and email. Twenty seven citizens were in attendance. March 6th’s council meeting agenda was similarly published, with a head count of around 17 attendees. This proves that with awareness comes attendance.”

Information about upcoming meetings, as well as the agendas for them, can be found on the city’s website, at sodaspringsid.com.  Over the last several months, the city has also updated and improved the functionality of its website as a whole, which now offers a portal for online bill payment, among other improvements.

Another tool to promote citizen involvement, available very recently, is an avenue via City Hall to sign up for text and email alerts for various agendas and notices. Contact city hall for more information on signing up for this free program. 

Those interested can visit https://www.sodaspringsid.com/enotify/index.php for more information or to sign up via the web. 

The newly installed technology should allow anyone who is unable to attend meetings, or does not wish to read written reports, access to the meetings.  One common complaint raised by citizens is that things happen in the city that they are not aware of.  While the technology won’t be able to account for the needs of everyone, it should certainly make it easier to be informed about actions taken and discussions held at the level of city government.  Those without home computers can still access YouTube and Facebook through phone apps or the relevant websites, allowing almost everyone access to “what goes on” at
council meetings.