Batavia City Council, as is the case with other Genesee County municipal boards, has decided to “zoom” into the world of electronic meetings.
City Council President Eugene Jankowski told The Batavian today that his group’s next Business Meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on April 13 via the video conferencing service, Zoom – with all council members remotely joining the proceedings by using a specific meeting ID and password.
Zoom Video Communications, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., provides a remote conferencing service that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration.
“We’ve been experimenting with Zoom – testing it and getting instruction about the software – and everyone seems to be on the same page,” said Jankowski, noting that city lawmakers need to meet to “keep things moving forward,” especially since the March 23rd meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Jankowski said he expects some logistical glitches at first, but is confident that the expertise of Alecia Kaus of Video News Service will go a long way in making the board’s first venture into the electronic age a successful one.
“We’re going to televise it through Video News Service so the public can watch, but they won’t be able to interact … there will be no public (question-and-answer) session,” he said. “We will, however, definitely allow for the public to send questions by email afterwards (to City Manager Martin Moore or to any council member).”
When contacted about the setup, Kaus said that she plans to post the meeting on her Facebook page and YouTube link – something that she normally does – and is open to putting it on other Internet sites as directed by City Council.
“I will be recording it live and airing it not long afterwards,” she said. “I am currently doing that for Spectrum (on its Community Access Channel) for the City and for the Town of Batavia, and I also have been recording the (Genesee County) Health Department meetings and putting them up for everyone to see.”
The Genesee County Legislature also is utilizing Zoom for its full legislature and committee meetings and posting them to YouTube. Its next meeting (a regular session) is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
