City Clerk Miguel Del Valle said in March that his office would make a Web video archive of City Council Meetings, which he touted as an “unprecedented government transparency initiative.”
Residents have since started to use the archive. However, the city acknowledges that follow-up measures are needed for the videos to really enhance civic dialogue.
“It has enabled some people to see the City Council for the first time ever,” says Del Valle spokeswoman Kristine Williams.
But the number of viewers is modest so far – about 2,600 per month, according to Williams.
The video archive features monthly City Council meetings since October 2009 but does not include committee meetings. Williams says the archive is “part of a broader government transparency initiative.”
The next steps will be uploading ordinances in real time, putting links to legislation on the video page, and creating a user-friendly database of city legislation.
Andy Shaw, executive director of Chicago’s Better Government Association, says the next step for the Clerk’s Office would be airing the meetings on public access TV.
“A large chunk of Chicago still doesn’t get their information off of computers,” he says.
Shaw notes that other city meetings – like the monthly Board of Education get together – are on public access. He says aldermen are avoiding public scrutiny by keeping their meetings off of TV.
Williams says the Clerk’s office would be happy to broadcast the meetings on TV, but would need a request from City Council to begin doing so.