LIVE STREAMING of Loddon Shire Council meetings will be ditched if a new policy gets the community thumbs up.
Councillors on Tuesday endorsed updated governance rules that that will allow council to stop live streaming of monthly meetings that it introduced during COVID. The report from governance manager Lisa Clue gave the option of live stream or later on-demand video recording of meetings.
But in questioning from Cr Miki Wilson, CEO Lincoln Fitzgerald and corporate director Michelle Stedman confirmed that council would abandon live stream for resource reasons.
“Considering human and technology resource challenges, councillors and officers have, over recent months discussed options for providing remote access to council meeting proceedings,” Ms Clue said in her report.
In the endorsed proposals that will be put out for community feedback, on-demand recordings of meetings will be available the next business day. The new policy also allows for written questions of council to be submitted from residents, businesses and organisations at meetings.
Mayor Dan Straub said residents wanting to view council decision making could still sit in the public gallery.
Tuesday’s council meeting was watched by 12 people while it is believed two people were in the gallery. The agenda had nine decision items, including the governance policy, that was released last Thursday afternoon.
“Compiling these reports has taken significant officer time, and as such the agenda was not able to be published on council’s website any earlier,” a spokesperson said.