Council meetings to appear on cable TV

Audio signal will be "webstreamed"

By Chantal Lamers

Beginning this week, Glenites with cable television can fight City Hall from the comfort of their own couch.

San Jose caught up with some of its surrounding cities on April 25, when it aired its first live broadcast of its Tuesday afternoon City Council meeting. Neighboring cities such as Saratoga, Cupertino and Sunnyvale already air meetings on television.

San Jose public outreach officer Tom Manheim believes that residents will discover that the Government Access Channel is a great resource for understanding local government. Until now, the only way for residents to keep an eye on the City Council was to attend weekly meetings, Manheim said.

Council meetings will air live Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. on channel 37A. Evening sessions of council meetings are normally held on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. Reruns of the meetings will be broadcast Thursdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m.

Manheim has been the man behind the $638,000 project since council members voted to begin it around 1997. "It takes time to do it right," he said. "We wanted to make sure it was high quality."

The project included the installation of three cameras at the back of the council chambers, and two behind the council members. Viewers can see audience members, city staff and public speakers over the broadcasts. New lights have been installed, shining down on the faces of 10 council members, the mayor, the city attorney and the city manager.

The production will resemble C-Span, the channel that broadcasts the U.S. House and Senate meetings.

The entire system will be run by two people from outside the council chambers. Manheim said city staff wanted to install a system that wouldn't disrupt the governmental process.

The new equipment is also portable. Manheim said that if City Hall were to move to a new downtown location, council's public access video equipment could tag along easily.

Residents without cable can still catch a glimpse into City Hall. Audio from the meetings will be "webstreamed" from the city of San Jose's home page. Residents can log onto www.san-jose.ca.us and download software.

Manheim said that, for now, the City Council meetings are the only ones that will be broadcast. Future possibilities include Planning Commission meetings and press conferences.

Bill Chew has attended City Council meetings regularly for about a decade, and has been a proponent of broadcasting meetings for about the same amount of time.

Chew, a District 6 resident and five-time candidate for the district's council seat, said that before he began attending meetings he had a wrong idea about what the City Council really means. He believes that San Jose residents will be surprised at what goes on at City Council meetings.

With the addition of this new window into City Hall, Chew believes, more residents will participate in city government. "Hopefully, people will tune in," he said.

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