Sunday Jan 20
Digital meetings coming to Burlingame
Council signs deal to broadcast over the Internet, will update audio system
By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer
Burlingame City Council meetings are going high-tech.
The city has signed a deal with San Francisco-based Granicus to broadcast its council meetings via streaming video through the Internet after the antiquated audio system in the council chambers is replaced.
The streaming video system and a year's worth of service by Granicus will cost the city $32,222, and the new audio equipment $44,000. The expenditures will be covered by franchise fees collected from local cable companies.
The new audio and video systems could be operational as soon as April.
To install the audio system, a small amount of asbestos will have to be removed from certain areas of City Hall. It is unclear how much that will cost.
The audio improvements will include new microphones, control panels and recording equipment.
Burlingame will spend an additional $46,000 to make its council chambers more handicap accessible by adding an emergency exit for the disabled, a wheelchair area, a podium that lowers and assisted listening equipment for the hearing impaired.
The city will tap into its facilities maintenance budget to pay for those improvements and the asbestos removal.
As for the streaming video, Granicus officials say they provide the same service for more than 400 government clients. The system allows people to view past meetings online and jump to the parts they want to watch without having to fast-forward or rewind a videocassette.
Currently, the meetings are broadcast on public access TV and available on audio cassette, VHS or DVD through the city clerk.
San Carlos, Menlo Park, Saratoga and other Bay Area cities also contract with Granicus.
"It gives the public greater access to information," said Burlingame Finance Director Jesus Nava.
Nava was directed by the council to look at similar systems, but he said Granicus was the obvious choice because it is the leading provider of that technology. And after the first year, the only cost will be a monthly $1,075 service charge, Nava said.
Under the city's contract with Granicus, the service charge can increase by up to 3 percent a year, said Hilda Stevens, a regional sales manager for the company. But the company has become so efficient that it has not had to raise rates since it was founded in 1999, she said.
City Clerk Doris Mortensen said that in addition to making it easier for residents to access the meetings, the new setup will ensure that those watching the footage can hear what is said. The audio quality of the old system has been a source of complaints, Mortensen said.
"There are still times when we will have employees watch (the meetings) and they will say 'the audio was terrible,' " she said.
Longtime resident Pat Giorni has attended council and various city commission meetings for years. She said the recordings of planning commission meetings in council chambers are inaudible at times. "Those are pretty bad because the sound system is bad," she said.
"The whole idea of upgrading the system will be a very big plus for the city in terms of capturing a larger audience," Giorni said.

– Written by Lorne

From January 7, 2008 SF Examiner:
CENTENNIAL PLAZA'S LOCATION MAY SHIFT
by Mike Rosenberg

After a year of public discussion about a possible centennial plaza by Burlingame's train station, the city appears ready to scrap those plans in favor of an entirely new, more tucked-away site that officials say solves parking and safety issues.

When Burlingame turns 100 years old in June, officials want a permanent community area to be erected to commemorate the occasion. A logical idea for the city until recently was to build the centennial plaza on the parking lot in front of the train station, a symbolic location because the city expanded from the rail line.

Many residents and even a few City Council candidates in November argued the $800,000 plaza was too expensive, and that a community area by the train station downtown along the busy California Drive was dangerous. Furthermore, residents and businesses worried that downtown parking by nearby Burlingame Avenue — already a headache for visitors — would be worsened by losing some of the roughly 19 metered spots in front of the station.

The new proposed site at the west end of Washington Park behind its tennis courts would be safer and not tie up parking as much as the train station option, said Parks and Recreation Director Randy Schwartz, the staff member reporting to the city's Centennial Executive Committee.

The proposed $690,000 plaza includes a 20-foot-by-20-foot bandstand, new seating areas, and renovated horseshoe and bocce ball courts at the city's oldest park. The council tonight will likely direct city staff to conduct further study on the park plan, which could end up being implemented in favor of the train station idea.

"I'm not sure a bandstand is appropriate for the park at all," said Dan Andersen, centennial committee member and Washington Park Society president. "It disrupts the entrance into the park."

But the park site is a major improvement over the train station idea, which "was a hazard waiting to happen," said Mayor Rosalie O'Mahony, who is on the centennial committee. "To me, it's the smartest move to make."

Councilmember Cathy Baylock is concerned the new proposal will not go through the same rigorous public hearing process the train station endured. After all, she noted, the residents will ultimately pay for most of the plaza through donations.

Baylock also wondered why the original idea to mark the centennial with a commemorative clock has gradually grown into a giant plaza.

"I'd like to see us take a step back," she said, "I want it to be smaller."

– Written by Joanne