WESTLOCK – The voices of Westlock County councillors in chambers will be more audible for online attendees once a new audio-visual system is installed.
At the Feb. 14 regular council meeting councillors unanimously approved to spend up to $20,000 to replace the audio-visual system in council chambers — CAO Tony Kulbisky said the equipment’s expected to arrive six to eight weeks after it is ordered.
While the current audio-visual equipment is new, it’s only a temporary solution after the previous equipment failed. However, it is not adequate and has caused issues with online delegations and residents viewing the meetings.
“You have seen first-hand how dated the equipment has been especially when we’re trying to Zoom in presentations to council,” said Kulbisky, noting he reviewed some of the recorded minutes and said people tuning into watch council meetings “can’t even really hear it, the discussion pieces.”
“We needed to make adjustments to the equipment. The one we have right now is just a temporary fix,” he said, noting the county’s contracted IT specialist Trinus looked at the current system to provide a “proper quote as to what it would take to actually improve things.”
Kulbisky noted the quote involved upgrading several different areas including cabling and equipment ”to make it much better for our municipal clerk … and also for the viewing public when they’re zooming in and also (for) you receiving presentations by zoom,” he said. “That’s going to be much better for everyone.”
Councillors responded favourably to the equipment upgrade proposal and quote, with Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson saying he looked at what Trinus proposed, saying he would be “more than happy to approve this, the $20,000.”
“I think we all agree that we need to improve on this. Our whole focus of council is to get out there and communicate better to our residents,” said reeve Christine Wiese. “It’s been embarrassing for administration as well as council when we get on there and we have delegations in here and they can’t hear us, we can’t hear them and it’s pretty terrible. So, this definitely needed to be something that was worked out.”
Coun. Jared Stitson said since the start of Zoom meetings, “It’s been a challenge to say the least.” He spoke with other councillors from other areas and noted some have monitors to see Zoom presentations and suggested it “might be handy to have the monitor here so we can actually see (the presentation). He also pointed out that some councils have a microphone on each desk with buttons to press when a councillor is speaking. “When the reeve addresses you, you’re actually talking into the mic and I think it would help a lot for the general public to hear when there’s a mic sitting on each table,” said Stitson noting other councils like Sturgeon County have had great success with it.
Coun. Isaac Skuban noted that “even if it’s a little more money, honestly, Zoom isn’t going away, we’re going to Zoom our meetings for a long time,” and was in favour of mics at every table or in between each councillor and perhaps the addition of a monitor. “We don’t need something insanely fancy, but I honestly want it to work the first time. So even if we have to put in a little more money to have something that will last …so you can hear someone clearly and you hear just that person.”
