Lawmakers consider going live on the Internet

Are they ready for their close-ups?

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Suppose you’re a reporter or a concerned citizen in Dutchess County, and you’re concerned about a $3 million bond measure that was to be discussed on May 8. And suppose, further, that your child became ill on the morning of May 8 and you weren’t able to attend the meeting of the Public Works and Capital Projects Committee.

Well, because you live in Dutchess County, there’s no need to miss a minute of the meeting. Simply go to the government website, follow a few links and replay the meeting on your computer with sound and full color video with the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind.

The result is much better than simply reading the minutes because you can catch facial expressions, voice tones and body language that often times help tell the full story.

The webcasting of meetings is an idea that intrigued some of the members of the Sullivan County Legislature at a meeting at the government center on June 5.

Joe Loughlin, CEO of the New Paltz-based company Total Webcasting, the company that provides services for Dutchess, made a pitch to lawmakers about providing webcasting of county meetings online, and then offering them up for viewing in an archive. As with almost all questions regarding this kind of new program in county government, the most important question for legislators was how much this would cost the taxpayers.

Loughlin said the company’s “full service” option involves bringing in all the equipment and personnel each time and performing all the associated tasks. The cost would be $500 for a meeting that lasted up to three hours, with an additional $50 for each additional hour.

The other option is “self service,” in which the company sells the county the necessary equipment and camera, which is then operated by county personnel. The company, however, still archives the meetings for three months. The cost for the equipment is about $6,000 with an additional $110 charge per three-hour meeting.

Several lawmakers showed interest in webcasting the monthly general meeting and indicated they wanted to discuss the idea more in the future.