CC 02-06-2024 Item No. 11. Cessation of Hybrid Commission and Committee Meetings_Supplemental Report
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CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
SUPPLEMENTAL 1
Meeting: February 6, 2024
Agenda Item #11
Subject
Cessation of Hybrid Commission and Committee Meetings
Recommended Action
Conduct City Council and Planning Commission meetings in a hybrid format
while continuing to utilize in‐person only meetings for all other commissions
and committee meetings.
Staff’s responses to questions received from councilmember are shown in italics.
Q1: What other cities still offer hybrid meetings for commission meetings? (Chao)
A survey was conducted with nine cities, revealing that seven of them, namely Mountain
View, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Campbell, and Saratoga, have
provisions in place to enable remote participation during certain Commission Meetings.
On the contrary, Milpitas and Los Gatos did not have such provisions available.
Q2: Please provide the number of views of commission meeting
recordings. (Chao)
Following past practice, only Council or Commission meetings that are broadcast live on
television are simultaneously streamed on YouTube. The table below displays YouTube
views for Council and Commission Meetings that were streamed on YouTube during the
period from November 2022 to July 2023.
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Number of YouTube Views
Legislative
Body
Nov‐
22
Dec‐
22
Jan‐
23
Feb‐
23
Mar‐
23
Apr‐
23
May‐
23
Jun‐
23
Jul‐
23
Parks and
Recreation
Commission
49 42 * 87 69 98 60 78 *
Housing
Commission
91
City Council 857 1364 672 845 989 1164 1736 857 1995
Planning
Commission
71 58 45 80 177 56 138
*No Meeting
Q3: On the 2022‐23 Work Program agenda we had an item titled ʺHybrid
Meeting for City Council and Commission Meetingsʺ with description ʺDevelop
policy and infrastructure to allow hybrid meetings for both City Council,
Commission meetings and future community workshops. This allows seniors,
caretakers, parents with young children to participate and speak.” (Chao)
The 2022‐23 Q4 update shows that the item is ʺcompleted.ʺ
Could you please provide an update on what hybrid meeting options were
considered during the 2022‐23 year?
The City explored hybrid meeting options from Zoom, Microsoft, and Cisco ultimately
opting for Zoom due to its advanced features and user‐friendly interface. Zoom also
seamlessly integrated with our TV broadcast solution. With Zoom chosen, we evaluated
using Zoom meetings or webinars for public meetings. Zoom webinars were preferred for
large audiences, audience control, registration, reporting, panelists, monetization,
security, branding, and practice sessions, while Zoom meetings suited smaller, informal
gatherings.
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Q4: Could you provide a cost estimate for the requested options? (Chao)
4.1 The minimum option: post audio recordings and retain it for the meeting records.
An additional $50.00/meeting in staff time to trim recording and post audio recording.
4.2 Provide video recording (without call‐in option or any video operation): This could
only need a stationary camera and a microphone to record the meeting. But it is still a
good meeting record.
An additional $70.00/meeting in staff time to setup meeting, trim recording, and post
video recording.
4.3 Provide audio‐only recording and hybrid option to allow call‐in: This would allow the
seniors and families with young children to participate in the meeting.
4.4 Provide audio‐only recording and allow public comments to be read into the meeting
records if submitted in time for an agenda item, this allows the public who cannot
attend in person to participate. (But I am not sure if this might be easier to coordinate
than Option 3)
For questions 4.3 & 4.4 the answer would be the same. $210 for first hour of the
meeting, plus an additional $105 for each hour thereafter. Cost increase is due to at least
one Video staff member being present.
4.5 Provide video recording with hybrid option with minimal staff support: Most people
have experiences conducting zoom meetings nowadays. Provide trainings to
Commission members and staff liaison to conduct zoom meetings without additional
support. (We might need disclaimers that in case that hybrid meeting option will be
best effort in case of technology issues.) This way we wonʹt allow rare technology
issues to become roadblocks to regular hybrid video meetings.
An additional $70.00/meeting in staff time to setup meeting, trim recording and post
video recording. Staff would strongly recommend against this procedure due to
potential Brown Act Violations caused by technical difficulties.