BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Bradford’s IT department will put together a plan for county commissioners for what it will take to begin livestreaming meetings.
The topic was last broached by the county’s former attorney and interim manager, Will Sexton, who sought direction on moving forward with the state-contracted vendor or seeking less expensive options.
Commissioner Carolyn Spooner brought it back to the commission this week, saying it is access citizens have requested and access many other governments provide.
Spooner said the last cost they were provided was around $12,000 to $14,000, but she said it was a good investment in better communication with the community.
Brent McFatter from the IT department said there is a “pretty substantial” plan in place. The obstacle they ran into when conducting manager interviews via the internet was audio.
“For the most part that works, but we had to kind of taped some things together, so to speak, to facilitate that,” he said.
Before unveiling anything to the public, McFatter said they would want to be sure meetings were audible, and for ADA compliance, they must also provide captions of the hearing impaired.
Sites like YouTube and Facebook have captioning tools that are serviceable, but they may want to investigate further to guarantee ADA compliance, he said.
Much of the equipment is in place, with some upgrading needed. McFatter said IT could put together a plan to give commissioners a better idea of the investment needed.
The commission approved purchasing laptop computers for the two remaining commissioners who don’t have them to eliminate printing agenda materials. County Manager Scott Kornegay said Bradford is probably one of the few political subdivisions in the state still printing agenda packets. Others provide them electronically.
The county is once again providing downloadable agenda packets via its website, www.bradfordcountyfl.gov.
Digital agendas were part of the advantage of the state contract provider Sexton had brought to the board. He said Granicus was used by more than 30 counties, and pricing is based on population size. For Bradford, that was around $1,000 a month for the web-based software, he said. The existing infrastructure would be used to broadcast the meetings, with ADA compliance ensured. Agendas would be available online along with backup materials for those items, and citizens would also be able to sign up for email notifications.
