Council meetings to be available for download

The Sisters City Council has decided to make audio recordings of meetings available for download within the next several months.

Earlier in the year the council decided that the estimated $1,200 expense, and the ongoing hassle of transferring the recordings, was not worth the effort for what the city officials have described as the "four people that request the audio recording every month."

In compliance with public meeting laws, all council meeting and related public City meetings must be recorded and archived. Except for executive sessions, these recording have been available on request at some time after the meeting. There was a $10 charge for each CD, and the CD often included several meetings.

At the council's request, Councilor Chris Frye dug a bit deeper into the issue and was able to come up with a solution that seemed to satisfy all parties. Beyond the technical solutions noted below, Frye found that there was broader interest than previously assumed in having the recording available on a no-charge, near-real-time basis.

The soon-to-be completed revamped City website will make transferring the recording much less complicated than it has been in the past. By eliminating the option of streaming (download only) the question of bandwidth is no longer a limiting factor. Reducing the back history requirement from five years to one year eliminates the issue of server storage capacity.

The new City website is expected to come online within the next two months. The City will issue a press release when the recordings become available. The City's "Letter from Ssters City Hall" printed weekly in the The Nugget for the last several months will now be published every other week.