Residents in Rancho Santa Margarita might be able to start watching city council meetings from home after asking council members to add video livestreaming for years.
Rancho Santa Margarita is one of two Orange County cities that only offer an audio stream of city council meetings, preventing residents from following along visually from home.
The other city that doesn’t offer video — La Palma — is also looking to add video livestreaming for the first time this year.
Officials in both cities are looking to add a camera in response to a new bill that made some changes to the California public meetings law known as the Brown Act.
SB 707 requires cities to provide options for the public to participate in meetings through a two-way remote attendance platform.
That means residents must be able to listen in to meetings remotely, and they also must be able to remotely participate in meetings, like giving a public comment. Those changes must be implemented by July 1.
The bill doesn’t necessarily require a video component, but officials in Rancho Santa Margarita and La Palma decided to look into adding that option anyway after holding out for years.
Officials in both cities previously argued the demand from residents to add video didn’t justify the cost.
[Read: Why Won’t Officials in Two OC Cities Video Livestream Their Public Meetings?]
During the Rancho Santa Margarita City Council meeting on April 22, officials voted unanimously to install a camera in the city council chambers that would broadcast meeting video in real time.
It comes after residents in Rancho Santa Margarita decided to take matters into their own hands and record council meetings themselves using cell phones and tripods.
[Read: Rancho Santa Margarita Officials Resist Livestreaming City Council Meeting Video]
A group of residents known as RSM4All take turns videotaping their local city council meetings and uploading them to their YouTube channel — Rancho Santa Margarita Citizens 4 Transparency.
[Read: Santana: Putting Politicians on Notice in Rancho Santa Margarita]
Rancho Santa Margarita’s vote was part of a larger effort to bring the city into compliance with SB 707 before the July 1 deadline.
“There would be a live video stream through the city’s website in real time and a recording of the meeting for post-meeting access that would also be posted on our website in perpetuity,” Rancho Santa Margarita City Manager Jennifer Cervantez said at the meeting.
In La Palma, council members unanimously directed the city manager to return at a future meeting with options for adding video conferencing equipment in the city council chambers during their meeting on April 7.
[Read: La Palma Leaders Look to Livestream City Council Meeting Video]
La Palma and Rancho Santa Margarita are subject to SB 707 because they’re located in a county with more than 600,000 residents.
The bill also requires updates like language translation for meeting agenda materials and heightened public outreach in addition to two-way remote public access.
Voice of OC has been following which cities offer video livestreaming for residents after a Chapman University student investigation revealed Rancho Santa Margarita and La Palma are the only two cities — of the 34 incorporated cities in Orange County — that fail to provide a visual livestream for public viewing.
Chapman students have been tracking the online accessibility of public meetings since 2020.
Even though it’s not required by law to have a video element for city council meetings, most Orange County cities offer the service for transparency and accessibility purposes and for residents who can’t make it to city hall in person for a weeknight meeting.
[Read: Making it Easy to Watch Local Government From Home]
Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Tony Beall thanked city staff for working to implement these changes by the deadline.
“I know you and your staff have been working hard since this bill was enacted late last year to make sure we can meet these technological challenges that need to be overcome in order to comply with these changes,” Beall told the city manager during last month’s meeting.
Councilmember Brad McGirr said the bill is complex and expressed concern that the state might make more changes soon.
“[SB707] is a very involved statute that staff have been dealing with since October of last year,” he said at the meeting. “This is not an easy statute to read — in fact, it’s been open to interpretation for the last seven months.”
Cervantez said implementing the changes, including video livestreaming meetings, will include a one-time cost of $42,186 and an additional annual cost of $32,073.
The city previously paid $20,300 annually to livestream council meeting audio. Adding the video component is expected to bring the city’s annual cost up to $52,400 per year, Cervantez said.
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.