GRASS VALLEY, Calif. June 26, 2017 – The Nevada Irrigation District (NID) Board of Directors will consider livestreaming video for board meetings at their June 28th meeting. At a previous meeting, video was disregarded in favor of audio files only. Public pressure at every meeting since has been mounting and the district appears to be reconsidering their position.
At the June 6th Administrative Practices Committee (APC) meeting, board members Nick Wilcox and Will Moorebeck directed staff to come up with a workable solution to start livestreaming and archiving the board’s meetings. The official recommendation reads: “Direct Staff to begin live streaming and video archiving District Board Meetings and adopt Resolution 2017-17 modifying District policy #1060 Records Retention and #5060 Minutes of Board Meetings; as recommended by the Administrative Practices committee.” You can watch that meeting on YubaNet’s channel.
How, What, When, Who?
The agenda item’s supporting document is light on details. Staff recommends “a low cost HD (1080p) IP solution that will provide video coverage of the Board room.” No further details are provided, except “Live streaming of the meeting will be provided through NID’s YouTube channel and then indexed, archived, and embedded on NID’s website post event.” NID’s YouTube channel was created on March 6, 2012 and five short videos were uploaded at that time – no activity since. No additional documentation for this item is currently available.
At the June 6 APC meeting, representatives from NCTV offered to submit a proposal for NID’s video needs. The proposal was submitted, according to NCTV’s Executive Director Ramona Howard, with several options: Fixed cameras (one or two) installed and one operator to mix both channels, portable cameras (one or two) with NCTV operating the cameras. In both cases, the video would be livestreamed on NCTV’s website and on their cable channels. The video would be available for watching online at any time after the meeting. NCTV would charge a minimum of 2 hours per meeting (at $80/hour). The cost of acquiring cameras and mixing equipment is minimal. NCTV has not received a response from NID regarding the proposal but will be in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting.
Grannicus software, used by the county and the cities, provides indexing, displaying the agenda item discussed and both a video and audio recording of the meeting besides the livestreaming – as seen on the county’s website. The audio version is available as a podcast. The software license is $750/year.
The district could qualify for a grant by the Northern Sierra Air Quality District (NSAQMD). Grant money is available via AB 2766 DMV funds to “implement activities or purchase equipment that reduces air pollution from vehicles.” NID is on NSAQMD’s mailing list to receive request for proposals but has not submitted an inquiry or a proposal.
The League of Women Voters, the Federation of Neighborhood Associations and SYRCL have asked NID to broadcast the meetings for a number of years. They and other members of the public asked for a solution “equivalent or better than the options provided by Nevada County at this time” during previous meetings.
The proposal appears to only address board meetings, not committee meetings or public meetings held off site. The staff report does not include a timeline for the district to implement the proposal.
The item will be discussed by NID’s Board at their regular meeting on Wednesday, June 28th, starting at 9:00 am at the NID office in Grass Valley. The full agenda and supporting documents are available here.
After the video recording item, board members will hear a presentation on NID’s vegetation management program. Organic farmer Mike Pasner shared his opinion on the current practices here: Op-Ed | Mike Pasner: Poison in the Water?
Editor’s note: Livestreaming is currently provided by YubaNet as a service to our readers – we’d like to thank AJA Video for their technical help and subscribers who make it possible for us to provide this service to the community. We will be at Wednesday’s meeting and broadcast NID’s decision to join the 21st century or not.
As always, Thank You Pascale for livestreaming the NID Board Meetings and committee meetings for the public good! It is too bad that YubaNet has to do NID’s job for them. Hopefully this will change soon. In the meantime we all appreciate all that you do for our community interest and especially when NID is pursuing a billion dollar Dam proposal with huge financial and ecological impacts.
Thank you Yubanet for the excellent coverage both of the print article above, and your video streaming and archieving of NID meetings.