AUGUSTA — Coming soon to a television near you, live from Augusta City Council Chambers, meetings of the Board of Education, Augusta Planning Board and other city boards and commissions.

City councilors voted unanimously Thursday to open up council chambers, and the room’s ability to broadcast and record meetings, to city boards and committees other than the council itself.

Augusta’s Cable TV and Telecommunications Committee recently recommended the chambers at Augusta City Center be opened to virtually all city boards and committees.

Some councilors who were at first opposed to city boards other than the council using the chambers are now among its biggest advocates.

“The spirit I want to impart here, with this order, is the citizens of Augusta, when they turn to Channel 7, I would like them to see some meeting from this room broadcasting,” said Councilor Patrick Paradis. “There are groups of people in this community doing the public’s business. If we can better educate, better inform, I think we can all gain.” Paradis was one of three councilors who initially opposed to chambers being used by other groups.

Councilors said using the council chambers which last year underwent roughly $100,000 worth of work to be outfitted with remote-controlled cameras and other technology to improve the broadcast of council meetings on CTV-7, would allow groups such as the Augusta Board of Education, Planning Board and Greater Augusta Utility District to conduct business on television and the public can be more informed.

Councilor Cecil Munson said that because of the way the chamber is set up for video and audio production, if councilors or other groups using council chambers are going to have their meetings televised — which is the main reason officials want to open up the chambers for others to use — they’ll have to sit in councilors’ seats. Munson said if officials sit elsewhere in the chamber for their meetings, the video and audio quality would suffer.

The council order gives the city manager’s office responsibility for overseeing and scheduling the use of the chambers. Council meetings would take priority over other meetings.

City Manager William Bridgeo said the room will be reserved for council meetings every Thursday, for school board meetings every other Wednesday, and be open for use by other groups as time and resources allow.

The school board usually meets in either the Capital Area Technical Center cafeteria or the Cony High School auditorium. Those spaces lack the high-tech video and audio television production system that the chambers has, thus the audio and video quality of broadcasts of board meetings has been poor, according to board members.

School board meetings, because they haven’t been in an established production-ready spot, are time-consuming for the crew of Waterville-based Digital Spirit Media, which has a $115,000 yearly contract to record and broadcast council meetings and other city and school events. The contract gives Augusta a set number of hours per year. So fewer hours spent setting up for school board meetings once they are moved to council chambers, officials noted, would mean more hours available for other events in Augusta.

Councilors discussed whether council chambers should also have a new name to reflect its new role, as the site of more than just council meetings.

“Since this will open it up to boards and commissions throughout city government, I suggest we consider changing the name from council chambers to community communication center. — something that reflects the wider usage,” Councilor Michael Byron said.

However councilors agreed to leave the name unchanged.

“It is what is is; we’re just expanding the use, not changing what it is,” Councilor Mark O’Brien said of leaving the name as council chambers.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

 

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