Like with any new process there is bound to be some hiccups. Reading, Pa., City Council had a hiccup Monday night.
Since March, council has been holding its meetings virtually using Zoom, an online meeting platform. The Zoom meeting is broadcast to a television and the city’s broadcast platform, Granicus, streams the meeting to the city’s website. BCTV also broadcasts the meeting.
Monday night, Granicus did not function properly and the meeting was not streamed on the website, said City Clerk Linda Kelleher.
The city’s IT department determined the problem was with Granicus.
“It’s a problem we had a few times in the past,” she said. “Granicus can correct that and post the meeting video when they are alerted to the problem.”
The meeting also was supposed to be broadcast on BCTV MAC Channel 99, but because of the Granicus issue that broadcast did not happen, Kelleher said.
A representative from Granicus reached out to the Reading Eagle Tuesday evening and disputed the city's claim.
"We had an important product update that was made last week and communicated to the city, requiring the city to refresh their IP," said Madeline O'Phelan, senior director of demand generation at Granicus. "Because the city did not make the update required on their end, the stream was interrupted."
The Reading Eagle was unable to cover the meeting because of the city’s technical issues and because the public is barred from attending the meetings in person during the pandemic.
No decisions were made and no votes were taken since the meeting was a work session.
According to its agenda, council was to discuss the appointments of Community Development Director Jamal Abodalo and Richard Carpenter to the Reading Area Water Authority.
Council also was to be briefed on the $1 million small business loan program it has funded.
The state Office of Open Records has said that despite the pandemic, meetings still need to be public and the public needs to be allowed to comment.
“The Sunshine Act is clear that public meetings should be held at public buildings with open public participation whenever possible,” Open Records Executive Director Erik Arneson wrote in a blog post.
He added that the agency needs to provide a reasonably accessible method for the public to participate and comment.
“Agencies should bear in mind that transparency builds trust, especially in times of crisis,” he wrote.
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