MOUNT Gambier City Council held its first meeting by electronic means Tuesday night to ensure elected members were able to adhere to COVID-19 restrictions.
Mayor Lynette Martin – alongside chief executive Andrew Meddle – hosted the monthly meeting from the Civic Centre chamber as council’s eight elected members appeared via video-conferencing platform Zoom from their homes.
The official proceedings were recorded and posted on the City of Mount Gambier YouTube page for viewing yesterday.
“This is our first full council meeting held electronically via Zoom – it is a new world for many,” Ms Martin said as she opened the meeting.
“I would like to convey our thanks to our IT services department, in particular Aaron Myers for the work involved in setting up – it has been days of work, but here we are.”
Mr Meddle revealed Tuesday’s meeting was a trial run as council continues to explore the option of live-streaming proceedings of future meetings.
“For the benefit of the trial we have gone with a record and release approach just to make sure we do not run out of space during the meeting or have issues with the technology,” he said.
“The plans for the future are that this would be a live stream approach and members of the press would be able to see it as it happens, as would any other member of the public.”
Livestreaming meetings was a hot topic of debate among elected members in early 2019, however cost and lack of public feedback resulted in it never coming to fruition.
Cr Ben Hood was intrigued to hear the idea was back on the table again on Tuesday night.
“Live-streaming sounds interesting,” Cr Hood said.
His comment was quickly followed by a thumbs-up from a beaming Cr Kate Amoroso who advocated for the initiative last year.
