PURPOSE

This report provides an update to Council on the electronic archival and playback of City Council meetings.

BACKGROUND

At the City Council meeting of August 8, 2006, Council requested that staff provide information on the possibility of obtaining technology to electronically store and index Council meetings and make them accessible on the city�s website.  This technology is readily available and has been implemented in several surrounding cities including Glendale, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Long Beach.

Granicus Media Manager is a proprietary web-based software tool that is used to access, archive, keyword search, index, and integrate documents into our web casts.  Public meetings currently viewable live over the Internet would be available as archives that can be retained and accessed on demand by the public.  Granicus improves public access with the availability of a searchable audio and video archive allowing citizens to select any meeting, at any time, using a simple keyword.  Additionally, documents such as staff reports, agendas and minutes can be synchronized and linked to the archive available through our website.

The City Clerk, Public Information Office and Information Technology participated in a product demonstration.  As a follow-up the City Clerk contacted several cities currently using the technology to gain more insight into their experience with the product selection process, the Granicus product and the vendor support.  A site visit to Long Beach was completed to view the product in action and additional conference calls were held to aid in further product evaluation.

ANALYSIS

Granicus Media Manager is in fact the leading product in this area and is currently in place in nearly 100 cities.  All cities contacted reported success with the product, satisfaction with the vendor and service response time. 

Media Manager fits well in our environment as it simply takes our current video streaming to the next level.  As it is a hosted solution, impact to the current technology resources are limited and media storage is handled at the vendor�s facility.

Another positive aspect of this solution is that it supports the agenda and minute process of the City Clerk�s Office while in effect providing a 24/7 resource for the public.  Documents such as agendas, staff reports and minutes can be synchronized and linked to the archives, facilitating searches by the public as well as staff.  Linked minutes will be recorded as searchable archives that can be used for efficient long-term record keeping, thereby eliminating the current redundancy of producing summary minutes while permanently maintaining videotapes, as well as audio CDs, of each meeting.  The Granicus solution will enable staff to easily provide the attachments and exhibits linked to the staff reports or agenda items, and will also enable the production of condensed minutes which can be published faster in this searchable format.

The Granicus solution also provides flexibility as our needs change.  We can extend our video retention schedule at any time, burn the archives to CD ROM and store on-site for historical reference and the presentation will remain the same, i.e., Windows Media Player, indexed by agenda item and linked with the documents.

For those citizens who do not have access to the Internet, in addition to access being provided at the Public Libraries, as referenced above, we can burn the archives to CD ROM for distribution.

FISCAL IMPACT

The Granicus solution is approximately $40,000 in one-time costs, which includes hardware, software, training, installation and web integration services, and first month managed services.  Ongoing costs for managed services will increase $50 a month or $600 annually for each additional year of online retention:

1st Year Monthly Managed Services $1,250 or $15,000 annually

2nd Year Monthly Managed Services $1,300 or $15,600 annually

3rd Year Monthly Managed Services $1,350 or 16,200 annually

4th Year Monthly Managed Services $1,400 or $16,800 annually

5th Year Monthly Managed Services $1,450 or $17,400 annually

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends that the Council direct staff to proceed with implementation of the Granicus solution.

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