What to do with meeting videos?

It’s a question borough officials may not have even imagined six months ago, and one that has an easy answer now.

With so many public meetings now held online, what should North Wales officials do with those videos?

“Since we are recording these, are we planning on doing anything with them? Or just for reference purposes?” said councilman Eion O’Neill.

Starting in late March, borough council has held public meetings online via the Zoom streaming video platform, with links to access those meetings included in

each night’s agenda. During their July 14 meeting, council unanimously approved four sets of meeting minutes, codifying an official record of their meetings in May and June — and prompting the question about what to do with the videos.

“We retain all recordings until they are transcribed, if you will, and approved,” said borough Manager Christine Hart, a policy for the current video recordings and for audio recordings made in council chambers.

“The recordings we are keeping on Zoom, we do just that: we keep them, and once the minutes have been transcribed, ... as per the records management system and our policy, we delete them,” she said.

Those four sets of minutes from May and June were transcribed, paraphrasing in parts, by Assistant Manager Alan Guzzardo, whom Hart said “really put his nose to the grindstone” to catch up as of Tuesday night. Hart asked if council would like any changes made to the borough’s policy

on keeping the video and minutes, and council President Jim Sando asked solicitor Greg Gifford for his advice on the videos.

“They should be put on the website after the meeting. Once the minutes are approved, they can be deleted, but not until such point as council approves the minutes,” he said.

“Many other municipalities are putting the meetings on their website, for any resident to see, until such time as the minutes are approved. And then they’re removed,” Gifford said.

Sando asked if the borough’s website had the technical capacity to do so, and Hart said she and Guzzardo would look into options. By Wednesday afternoon, a new solution was already set up: under the borough website’s header for “borough council minutes,” a link to the July 14 meeting on video hosting site Vimeo was posted, above the nowapproved minutes from 2020 and earlier.

Meetings staying online

Sando also asked for input from the rest of council on whether to keep

meeting virtually or to gather in person.

“I think it is in the best interests of council, and the public, that we continue in this fashion — at least until we see evidence through the Montgomery County Health Department that it is much safer to go back to public meetings,” Sando said.

Mayor Greg D’Angelo joked he was worried about appearing in public during Bastille Day on July 14, and council members unanimously agreed to stay online for now.

“I think, despite the technical glitches, I think getting the Zoom process down has been working very well for us. We’re doing very well with attendance, and it’s been very efficient,” said councilman Mark Tarlecki.

After hearing unanimous agreement, Sando said the meetings will continue online “until council determines otherwise.”

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Grant contract gets OK

Council also voted unanimously on July 14 to approve a contract maintaining the borough’s status with CLG, the state’s Certified Local Government program. According