Coming soon to the internet near you will be St. Joseph City Commission meetings.
Speaking to colleagues this week, Commissioner Michael Fernandez said with the city commission chambers all outfitted with the latest and greatest audio and visual equipment, there’s no reason not to make recordings of the meetings available to the public. He wondered why someone should have to attend in person to know their city government.
“We really don’t have that many people in the room right now,” Fernandez said. “Six o’clock, while reasonable for some, people have lives and things going on. While it might be hard to tune in live to a meeting, I can tell you, it’s very easy to pull something up on YouTube and watch it anytime you want, and I think that that is a value add that we can add to our citizens that we’re already set up for.”
Fellow commissioners agreed, with Mayor Brook Thomas saying it could be beneficial to residents to pull up city commission meetings on YouTube at their leisure.
The city commission already broadcasts its meetings over Zoom, so City Manager John Hodgson said making them more accessible to the public could be a simple matter of taking the Zoom video and uploading it to YouTube. Or, the meetings could be streamed live.
Fernandez also suggested city bodies like the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Downtown Development Authority put their meetings online as well.
Commissioners instructed city staff to come up with a plan to make it happen.
