One of Orange County’s smallest cities this week plans to join the growing movement of agencies making it easier for residents to tune in online to city council meetings.
Laguna Woods previously only broadcast city council meetings on a government access television channel without any online archive to rewatch meetings.
Today, city officials are scheduled to roll out new YouTube and Zoom streaming options. That will include real-time captioning and a digital archive for residents to access meetings after they end.
City officials are conducting a final test on the captioning software today with a potential rollout of the new options at this afternoon’s city council meeting.
Editors’ Note: This dispatch is part of the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service, working with student journalists to cover public policy issues across Orange County. If you would like to submit your own student media project related to Orange County civics or if you have any response to this work, contact admin@voiceofoc.org.
Laguna Woods’ action this week leaves the Orange County Transportation Authority, Rancho Santa Margarita, La Palma, three of the region’s community college districts and a few small school districts as the remaining agencies that only stream meeting audio, leaving residents unable to follow along visually with public meetings.
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) — which operates with a $1.6 billion annual budget — doesn’t livestream any meeting video.
Rancho Santa Margarita and La Palma also only provide residents with audio livestreams of city council meetings, making them the only Orange County cities that currently don’t provide video livestream options.
Some other government entities don’t provide any livestreaming options at all.
Two of the four OC community college districts don’t provide any video or audio livestreams for board meetings, posting only agendas and minutes on their websites.
These findings are a result of a partnership between Chapman University journalism students and Voice of OC looking at online meeting accessibility. Chapman students have been tracking the online accessibility of public meetings since 2020.
In 2023, Chapman students also ranked how easy it is for residents to access recordings of their local school district meetings.
[Read: How Easy is it to Tune Into Your School Board Meeting?]
That research found that most OC school districts provide meeting recordings and archives to the public in an accessible manner, while some others — like the Savanna School District — force residents to specifically request past meeting videos if they want to view them.
Many cities in the county broadcast their meetings live on platforms like YouTube. These video livestreams are uploaded to the YouTube archive immediately after it ends, allowing for instant replays.
Other cities post meeting videos directly onto the city website. But if you miss the livestream, you might have to wait for city officials to post the video recording, which could be several days later.
How Chapman Students and Voice of OC Graded Agencies
A: Video and audio posted immediately following the meeting
B: Video and audio posted within 24 hours after the meeting
C: Video and audio posted within seven days after the meeting
D: Only audio is posted to the website
F: No livestream is available after the meeting
A map of Orange County displays meeting accessibility grades for each city. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC
Which Public Agencies Scored the Highest?
Fifteen cities, two government agencies and one community college district earned an “A” grade.
These entities make it easy for the public to tune in by quickly uploading both audio and video recordings immediately after each meeting.
South Orange County Community College District is the only community college district to earn an “A.”
Laguna Woods is the latest city to improve streaming options, moving them up to an “A” grade.
Previously, residents were required to submit a public records request to review meeting videos. City officials did not post audio or video online and there were no available archives on the website.
Laguna Woods City Manager Christopher Macon said the city will add video recordings of their past meetings and future meeting livestreams to their website.
“We have been redesigning our broadcast system to ensure that the human-generated, real-time captioning visible during our live meetings can be saved with video recordings,” Macon said, “so residents and other interested parties have an alternative to automated captioning.”
Macon previously told reporters the city would post video recordings of its city council meetings by Jan. 1. But in an email to Voice of OC on Feb. 5, he said the city anticipates having this completed after a final test of its broadcast systems on Feb. 21.
Because of these changes, Laguna Woods has earned an “A” grade, joining Santa Ana, Irvine, Costa Mesa and other cities that make meetings accessible online.
Laguna Woods Councilmember Shari Horne said the updated livestream format will allow more residents to get involved with public meetings.
“City Hall is always a work in progress,” Horne said. “We have been upgrading and improving our electronics and functionality as we are able. We think this may improve our residents’ ability to be involved. We want that.”
Most Agencies Get a “B” Grade
Seventeen cities — including Laguna Beach, Orange and Mission Viejo — received a “B” grade.
These cities post video recordings online within 24 hours after city council meetings end. Residents can also easily access meeting archives from previous years.
The OC Board of Supervisors also received a “B” grade because they upload video recordings of meetings the following day.
No agencies earned a “C” grade since all the agencies that livestream videos post them within 24 hours after the meeting.
Six Agencies Get a “D” and Below
Officials in these cities and public agencies only post audio to their websites, or in some cases, nothing at all.
Rancho Santa Margarita, La Palma and OCTA earned a “D” grade since they both only post audio from public meetings.
Audio-only meetings can make it more difficult to understand who is speaking throughout meetings. A lack of captioning could also make meetings inaccessible for those with hearing loss.
[Read: Unheard: Orange County Shuts Out Deaf Residents From Public Meeting Broadcasts]
“We started to livestream the audio of OCTA board meetings in approximately 2008, and we haven’t really seen a demand for video,” Joel Zlotnik, OCTA’s strategic communications manager, wrote in an email to Voice of OC.
“There are multiple ways the public can participate in our board meetings, including listening from anywhere to the live audio stream, attending in person, speaking on an item in person, and/or submitting written or emailed comments,” he continued.
Eric Carpenter, OCTA communication specialist, said they are having internal discussions about potential video streaming options in the future.
Three Community College Districts Flunk With an “F” Grade
Coast Community College District does not livestream board meetings in any capacity, leaving attending in-person as the only option for those looking to participate.
Although the North Orange County Community College District does provide a video livestream on YouTube, it does not post archives to the channel or its website. Video recordings are only available by request going back to Apr. 14, 2020, for those unable to tune in to the livestream or attend in person, earning them an “F.”
Similarly, the Rancho Santiago Community College District does livestream board meetings on Zoom. But if someone wants to review a past meeting, those videos are only available from the Chancellor’s office upon request — also earning this district an “F” grade.
Why is it Important to Make Video Recordings of Meetings Available?
Marisol Ramirez, deputy director of Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD), said agencies likely won’t make any changes without outside influence.
“It’s important to note that for the most part we see the local government will not make communication more readily accessible to the public unless there is a push for it to take place, unfortunately,” Ramirez said.
Failing to record city council and board meetings — and failing to make these recordings available to the public — is not against the law.
But California State University, Fullerton professor Matthew Jarvis said posting these videos increases transparency, which is critical to local government.
“More important still is probably visibility,” said Jarvis, who researches American politics and elections. “It doesn’t matter much if something is transparent if nobody is watching. Take the Bell scandal from a while back — they did these things in open city council meetings. But nobody was there.”
“If corruption happens in a city council meeting, but nobody is around to see it, did it happen?” he said.
Correction: This story previously listed La Palma with a “B” grade, meaning the city posts video livestreams from city council meetings. It moved down to a “D” because the city only posts audio from these meetings. In addition, Westminster was upgraded to an “A.” While the city’s website takes 24 hours to post video livestreams, city officials do provide a YouTube channel that provides a real-time livestream and is available immediately after the meeting.
Additionally, Yorba Linda was upgraded to an “A” grade. The city does post video and audio on its website immediately following the meeting.
An earlier version of this story also stated that the North Orange County Community College District and the Rancho Santiago Community College District do not livestream their meetings. The districts do livestream their meetings, but they do not publicly post an archive of livestream meetings online. Videos are only available by request.
We regret the errors.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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