More Essex municipalities to live stream meetings

Kingsville, A’ burg Leamington and Tecumseh councils to start in 2020

Move over Netflix. More and more municipal councils in Essex County will live stream meetings in the new year.

Kingsville, Leamington, Amherstburg and Tecumseh will webcast meetings in the new year and Essex is considering it.

In November, Essex County council added live streaming so people could watch the monthly meetings live or go back to see portions or all of recorded meetings. The City of Windsor already offers live streaming video during all city council and standing committee meetings and has recordings of past meetings available online.

Lakeshore has had a webcast for its council meetings since 2012, said Rita Chappell, Lakeshore’s manager of communications and strategic initiatives. “People are tuning in,” Chappell said.

Residents can click on “Lakeshore TV” on the town’s website to watch live or view the recording of a council meeting later. The town knows residents are watching live because people will sometimes email about a rare technical glitch, she said.

With such a large municipality, it makes it easier for people to keep up on Lakeshore council decisions without having to drive a long distance to attend a meeting or miss a key debate because of poor weather, she said.

Now, other municipalities are making it more convenient for residents to tune into local politics.

In November, staff in Kingsville were testing the newly installed camera and recording system to get Kingsville council ready for its official live stream launch in January.

Amherstburg already has audio recordings of its meetings and council voted in the summer to have a webcast in 2020. The webcast costs were approved in the budget and live streaming will be available in the new year, said Amherstburg councillor Pat Simone, a supporter of live coverage.

Amherstburg council approved expenses related to webcasting in July. The annual fees are about $17,700 with taxes and there is a one time cost of about $6,000 for equipment in the 2020 budget.

The Town of Tecumseh is renovating its town hall and live streaming for council meetings is part of that and has an approximate cost of $50,000. The expected completion date for the town hall renovations is the end of summer, said Lesley Reeves, Tecumseh’s manager of strategic initiatives.

During construction, council meetings will be held at the Horwood Room at the Tecumseh Arena beginning Jan. 14. Council chambers are temporarily being used so the public can access the town hall and services from the rear entrance to the chambers and the public access with seven parking spots available off Mcnorton Street in the new year.

The Municipality of Leamington expects to start live streaming council meetings early in 2020. CFTV cable television had been broadcasting Leamington meetings for years but the municipality is expected to issue a Request for Proposal for broadcasting council meetings through cable, satellite and over-the-air services in the new year, said Kelly Sfetkidis, manager of communications and public relations

The Town of Essex was studying the issue and a report was expected to come to council in late December or early 2020.

Lasalle council has not had any recent reports on the subject and did not have provisions to live stream meetings in either its 2019 budget nor the 2020 budget.

Some municipalities did have coverage by CFTV in Leamington. County council meetings had been broadcast by Yourtv but not everyone has cable television.