A Livingston County subcommittee is exploring options as they work to determine how to go about broadcasting county meetings.

The three-person County Broadcasting Committee, which is comprised of County Commissioners Gary Childs, Doug Helzerman and Wes Nakagiri, met Monday night and discussed preliminary aspects of broadcasting county meetings; a concept that has been at the forefront of talks since the County Broadcasting Committee was re-upped earlier this month. The committee was originally formed in the summer of 2017 and, during a proof of concept run, an agreement was made to broadcast county Board meetings through the end of 2018. The committee voted 2 to 1 against continuing services into this year during a November meeting, which led to many residents participating in a so-called “people’s filibuster” last month out of protest.

Commissioner Gary Childs, who was the lone vote in favor of continuing to broadcast, is again chairing the committee. Childs says the committee is looking into every aspect connected to broadcasting the meetings and how to do it best stating, "We're going to look into the options for recording, audio, how the tapes are going to be stored, where and how they're going to be played, and just to try to get started again keeping the citizens of Livingston better informed."

When commenting on whether viewership warrants broadcasting the meetings Childs says, "Based on our prior proof of concept our viewership is seemingly higher than the next five closest counties, according to Commissioner Helzerman."

At Monday’s meeting Committee member Doug Helzerman presented some examples of other counties’ avenues for broadcasting, pointing out the aspects of each that he did and didn’t like. Committee members are considering how to achieve the best sound quality and visual presentation, all while staying within a reasonable price range. The meeting concluded with the committee agreeing to move forward with exploring the cost of different options. (DK)