Pulaski County plans to pay nearly $23,000 in the next year for services that will broadcast Quorum Court meetings live on the Internet and then archive them for future viewing.
Most of the payments -- $13,890 -- would be one-time costs associated with purchasing and setting up the equipment. Regular costs of broadcasting and archiving each meeting would be $750 per month, or $9,000 each year, as long as the county does not exceed 35 meetings in a year's time. Additional meetings would each cost $150.
Quorum Court meetings are held twice each month and are usually sparsely attended by non-county employees. In the fall, the Quorum Court holds several budget hearings, where dozens of department heads request funds for the next budget year.
The streaming of Quorum Court meetings is part of an effort made by Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde who, when he took office in January, set goals to increase the county government's presence online.
Later this summer, county officials plan to launch an updated website, hire a communications director to maintain it and start social media accounts for county government.
The streaming of county meetings won't begin until the new website is up and running, Hyde said, and the new website won't be up and running until the county hires a communications director. Appropriating funds for a communications director are up for a final vote tonight at the Quorum Court's final July meeting.
"We need this person brought on board because one of their first responsibilities will be to manage and maintain and populate that new website," Hyde said.
Officials with Swagit Productions of Plano, Texas, plan to install equipment for streaming at the beginning of September, said Tina Brookens, lead buyer in the county's purchasing department.
After more than a month of deliberation, county officials last week chose Swagit for the county's first paying contract for broadcasting services. Officials, including Hyde, have not all signed the contract for the service yet, but Hyde said he doubted much would change from what has already been discussed with the company.
Swagit competed with Denver-based Granicus, which offered a lower price but did not offer to provide and install cameras as a part of its proposal.
"Their bid was not completed, basically, so that was one thing they did get a low score on," Brookens said. The county's request for proposal asked that a contractor include cameras. In a request for proposal, proposals are scored blindly in certain categories before final selection.
Both companies offer streaming services to government agencies, notably cities.
Swagit has worked with Houston and Austin, Texas; Athens, Ohio; and Provo, Utah, for streaming meetings.
Currently, Comcast broadcasts one Quorum Court meeting each month to its subscribers at no cost to the county, but the meetings are not recorded, archived or accessible to people without Comcast cable. Viewership of the broadcast meetings is not tracked by the company.
The county joins the Arkansas Legislature, Little Rock and North Little Rock, among other cities in Arkansas, in broadcasting meetings online.
As of June, Little Rock's archived videos dating back to 2012 had been viewed 4,700 times.
After two months of streaming this year, North Little Rock's meetings had garnered 384 views online.
In the fall of 2013, Pulaski County justices of the peace discussed streaming and archiving meetings online using Comcast's equipment, but the effort was opposed by some who questioned the audio quality of the Comcast broadcasts and the demand for them.
Metro on 07/28/2015