City streaming public meetings online

The City of San Benito, Texas, is now streaming its Commission meetings online for public viewing at the City’s website homepage at www.cityofsanbenito.com (City of San Benito Live Stream).
The meeting videos are first streamed live, and then posted to the online archive. As part of the city’s initiative to increase public participation in government affairs, recorded meetings can be viewed on computer as well as any mobile device capable of streaming video playback.
Viewers of the City of San Benito’s online videos can pause, fast-forward and rewind — as well as jump directly to any of the multiple marked index points within the archived recording. Meetings can be also be searched by metadata to find specific topics of interest.
San Benito has taken advantage of advancing technology to allow their residents to watch the proceedings of city meetings without requiring them to be physically present at the meeting itself, or to only read a post-meeting transcript. This ease of access increases the city’s message reach and lets residents stay up to date on local events and affairs that affect them.
The City of San Benito chose to partner with Swagit Productions, LLC, to offer streaming media services. These features include archived and indexed meetings, ability to view on multiple mobile device platforms, and metadata search through archived meetings.
“This is another step toward providing greater transparency to our citizenry, and to allow everyone the opportunity to see how City government is conducted,” said Mayor Celeste Z. Sanchez.
“It is important for our community to know how we are using taxpayers’ money. This will give everyone the chance to see how we discuss items and make decisions,” Mayor Pro Tem Tony Gonzales said.
Commissioner Rene Villafranco also expressed enthusiasm for the new technology. “This is a wonderful and easy way for our citizens to see and hear what we, the elected officials, are doing,” he said.
“This is a great way to reach out to our constituents, to inform them how their city operates and to ensure we are accountable for the decisions made on their behalf,” Commissioner Joe D. Gonzalez said.
“This is another form of open government which gives citizens more awareness of their government’s activities and enables those interested to become more directly involved in the legislative process. And that is a good thing,” Commissioner Steve Rodriguez added.
Swagit Productions, LLC, the industry leader providing hands-free technology and broadcast solutions to local, state and federal agencies, is proud to be partnered with the City of San Benito.
For any questions or comments, please contact the City of San Benito at 956-361-3800.