MOUNT Gambier residents may be able to watch councillors debate live on Facebook soon as elected members backed a bid to live-stream all ordinary council meetings.
Elected members were unanimous in their support of streaming council meetings online after councillor Kate Amoroso sought to introduce the new technology.
In speaking to the motion, Cr Amoroso said live streaming would ensure council was open and transparent to the community, saying there was “too much business behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny”.
Cr Amoroso said live streaming meetings would help “Mayors and councillors behave” and conduct meetings, along with rulings, that can be “properly assessed” by audiences.
While she supported some closed door meetings of commercial nature, she did not believe lock outs were appropriate during “the merits of a sports hub”.
Further, Cr Amoroso said she had felt “forces” had “attempted to silence me from my opinion on council matters”.
“The reality is, it’s not silencing me,” she said.
“It’s silencing the community that voted for me and want me to represent them.”
Ahead of the motion being seconded, Mayor Lynette Martin offered her personal view and said councillors “do need to be pre-informed and a report be obtained” before a decision could be made.
Although she supported transparency, Ms Martin disagreed with Cr Amoroso’s sentiments saying council was “more transparent” than she initially thought.
“(Live-streaming) would certainly add to the transparency,” she said.
However, Ms Martin said “several things” needed to be taken into consideration with any move to live-stream meetings.
Ms Martin raised concerns about the recording of confidential items, cost equipment requirements and the potential of a live broadcast stymieing debate.
“Some councillors, knowing it is being recorded, might be a bit reticent to speak their mind,” she said.
“Conversely, others might take advantage of it.”
In seconding the motion, Cr Christian Greco said the technology could provide the ability to reach a broader audience.
“The numbers we get in the public gallery are not great,” he said.
“We probably get five in a community of 25,000.
“Having a presence online would create a lot of interest.”
Cr Sonya Mezinec backed live streaming but expressed concern about the implementation.
“Captioning for example, that will involve some costs and might take a bit longer to get sorted,” she said.
“I would like to be sure we have all the options”.
Cr Ben Hood said Facebook was likely to be the most appropriate platform to stream the meetings given its widespread use and reach.
“A significant amount of people spend their time on Facebook,” he said.
“I do not think that having live streaming straight off the bat is going to be overly received by a significant amount of people.
“I think being on Facebook first and foremost, we will be in people’s streams”.
The motion passed with meetings floated to be streamed mid year.
Councillors also supported a change in policy which formerly allowed the Presiding Member to direct audio recordings of council meetings to stop.
Under council policy, media are permitted to record council meetings.
