In Rehoboth, no consensus on livestreaming

Rehoboth Beach officials have yet to reach a consensus on whether commissioner meetings should be streamed live on the internet.

Technology in the new City Hall building allows city officials to stream city meetings live, in real time, over the internet. The city already posts audio recordings of meetings on its website after the meeting has happened.

Commissioner Lisa Schlosser supports streaming meetings live, as they happen. She cited an informal poll in the Cape Gazette that showed 72 percent of respondents support livestreaming meetings. Schlosser said livestreaming will give nonresidents and people who can’t attend meetings a better opportunity to engage in city government and suggested it could be phased in to see how it goes.

“If one person uses livestream that wouldn’t have been at the meeting, given that we’ve invested in this technical capability, one more person is participating in our government,” Schlosser said.

Commissioner Stan Mills said he wants video of the meeting to be posted to the website after the meeting is over.  Mills said the videos could be indexed so viewers could find the portion of the meeting they are interested in.

Mills also said he gave “zero weight” to the Cape Gazette poll because it was not limited to city property owners and noted the choice is not livestreaming or nothing. He said he’s concerned people watching the livestream would text members of the audience with questions.

“I want to see the person face-to-face. I want to ask a follow-up question to the person asking the question. I don’t want that person in the audience to ask the friend’s question at home and then have to text them a follow-up question. Cure these potential abuses and private communications, which could potentially be FOIA violations,” he said.  Mills supports posting video of the meeting after the meeting.

He also said livestreaming could result in private communications, either among commissioners using email or cell phones, or among commissioners and members of the audience.

Mayor Paul Kuhns said he was fine with people watching and listening to meetings, but he did not want the streaming to be interactive.

“If it’s interactive I think we do run into FOIA issues,” he said.

Commissioner Kathy McGuiness supported broadcasting meetings live, although she agreed with Kuhns that they should not be interactive. She said she did not think many people would be watching unless it was an agenda topic that they have an interest in.

Mills said, “The benefit of this program is to be able to watch it on demand, when you want, and to be able to hit those indexes to go where you want. I promote people coming in person. We can see them eye-to-eye and interact with them. I don’t see how livestreaming versus being able to watch it the next day is any less engaging.”

Schlosser said people prefer to watch things live versus on delay. “I don’t see the downside really,” she said.

McGuiness said the city’s technology could do both, allowing livestreaming and for people to watch after the fact.

Commissioner Patrick Gossett supported moving forward with posting video on a delayed basis, similar to how the city currently posts audio.

“I don’t know who watches live TV anymore. Everybody binge watches. I think the interest is in agenda topics. We have the capability. Let our citizens react to it, one way or another,” he said.

Mills didn’t budge, however, saying he was firm that no interaction should take place during the meeting.

“Cure my abuses, and I can support it,” he said.

The commissioners did not take a final action, although Kuhns indicated that the direction seems to be releasing video after the meeting.