The City of Greater Dandenong, which webcasts its meetings with great success, said webcasting posed no additional legal risk to councillors or council staff.By Callan Date
CASEY Council will not webcast its meetings on the Internet. The controversial decision was made at last week’s meeting after almost an hour of debate on the issue.
Concerns over possible defamation and other legal proceedings being brought against Casey if the online broadcast went ahead was a major concern for Casey CEO Mike Tyler and some councillors.
The move would have allowed Casey residents who live a considerable distance from the Narre Warren Civic Centre to watch their councillors in action.
But residents in the city’s coastal towns will have to continue the long drive if they want to watch the meetings.
A City of Casey officer said it would cost the city about $20,000 per year to broadcast the meeting, as well as a one-off $23,000 establishment fee.
Neighbouring City of Greater Dandenong, which webcasts its meetings with great success, said moving into the digital age posed no additional legal risk to councillors or council staff.
The News contacted Greater Dandenong council to ask if it was concerned that its own webcast could be placing the council at a greater risk of legal action being brought upon it.
Governance and customer service manager June Ernst said it was not a concern for Greater Dandenong.
“Council does not believe webcasting poses any additional risks to council beyond those that apply to all councils in the conduct of council meetings,” she said. “The feedback from the public has been positive, particularly from a convenience point of view.
“People no longer have to attend meetings in person and all meetings are available on an archive system for future reference.”
Casey councillor Rob Wilson said webcasting would help the elderly, as well as people who didn’t want to travel late at night to access the meetings.
“We need to concentrate on the benefit towards thousands of ratepayers in this city,” he said.
Casey councillor Wayne Smith said he had watched a Greater Dandenong meeting online and found it of great benefit.
Casey councillor Kevin Bradford also pushed hard for the service to be implemented.
He said it would have many positives, including allowing ratepayers to see how well each councillor was performing.
“It will show up which councillors say only two words in this chamber,” Cr Bradford said.“It is a small price to pay to be accountable to the residents.”
However Casey councillor Mick Morland was against the idea.
He said there would be little demand for webcasting as there were more than 235,000 Casey residents, but only a handful turned up to each meeting.
“The majority of people don’t want to listen to us (councillors) waffle on. It is a waste of time,” he said.
City of Casey officers will now look at videotaping council meetings and making the recording available to residents.
>>> Would you watch Casey Council meetings online? Have you ever attended a Casey Council meeting? Let us know your thoughts on the webcasting issue by emailing callan.date@starnewsgroup.com.au
