HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDA REPORT 1992 0325 CC SPC ITEM 08JTO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
BACKGROUND
ITEM 8' T.
MOORPARK
799 Moorpark Avenue Moorpark, California 93021
MEMORANDUM
The Honorable City Council
Lillian E. Kellerman
March 20, 1992 (CC meeting 3/25/92)
CABLECASTING OF CITY COUNCIL AGENDA
(805) 529-6864
MOORPARK. CALIFORN'
aN Meeflng
of 199
ACTION:
BY
On January 8, 1992, Eloise Brown, speaking under public comment,
suggested that the City display City Council agendas on Channel 10
beginning the weekend prior to a scheduled City Council meeting.
With Council concurrence, Councilmember Perez requested a report on
the feasibility of this suggestion.
Several cities responded to a City -link request for information on
this subject and, without exception, all those responding indicated
that 1)public hearing and action items only are input to their
character generators for cablecasting; and 2) items are input in a
severely abbreviated format because of the difficulty of character
generator input and the limitations of character generator systems.
In addition to staff's City -link information request, the cities of
Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks were contacted regarding the
cablecasting of their respective agendas. Simi Valley cablecasts
an abbreviated agenda and does so at 5:00 p.m. the evening of their
City Council meeting. Thousand Oaks cablecasts a complete agenda
one hour prior to their City Council meeting.
The City Clerk's Office in Thousand Oaks provides a computer file
(ASCII) on disk to the Video Department and the Video Technician
translates the file for cablecasting using specialized software.
The Video Technician indicated that some reformatting of the agenda
is done after receiving the ASCII file and prior to transferring
the agenda data to the character generator program. The technician
also indicated that he spent a 1/2 day typing the City Council
agenda into the character generator prior to the development of
their translation software; this information corroborates an agenda
input test done by Moorpark City staff. Our input of three agenda
titles and recommendations (including review and correction) took
30 minutes -- an average agenda consists of 30 agenda items. It is
our determination that the task of character generator input of the
agenda cannot be accomplished at present staffing levels with the
time constraints of producing the agenda packet the day the agenda
is finalized.
PAUL W. LAWRASON JR. JOHN E. WOZNIAK SCOTT MONTGOMERY BERNARDO M. PEREZ ROY E. TALLEY JR.
Mayor Mayor Pro Tom Councilmember Councilmember Councilmember
Cablecast of Agenda
March 18, 1992
Page 2
City staff, in addition to the character input test, experimented
with filming the agenda and found filming to be unsatisfactory due
to the illegibility of the print size. An experiment with the zoom
function caused each line to be dissected, creating another
unsatisfactory viewing result.
Hoffman Video indicates that our system has the capability to
translate an ASCII file for use on the character generator.
Additional programming may be needed to accomplish an "accurate
translation" and training for City staff by Hoffman Video in this
use of system software will be necessary. In addition, a member of
City staff or the City's video contractor will have to be assigned
responsibility for operation of this new program.
RECOMMENDATION
Receive and file the report and request a follow -up report after
testing and training on the character generator system software has
been scheduled and completed, and the impacts on staff time and
quantifiable costs have been determined.