King County Council among national leaders in providing online access to its meetings

March 17, 2009

Summary

Top 10 ranking in number of webcasts posted demonstrates government transparency

Story

In connection with National Sunshine Week, an initiative to promote open government, the Metropolitan King County Council has been recognized for being among the top 10 governments in the nation in posting public meetings and other webcasts online via the Granicus system.

“Making government more transparent and accessible is one of our highest priorities as a council,” said Council Chair Dow Constantine. “The more meaningful information we can put online, the more we can encourage citizen involvement and participation.”

“Use of this technology makes it easier for citizens to jump to particular agenda items in our meeting videos, so they can see just what they want without having to search through an entire meeting,” said Councilmember Jane Hague, Vice Chair for Administration and Finance.

All King County Council and Committee meetings held in chambers are streamed live online through the Council’s Web site and archived videos of past meetings are available on demand. The videos are posted through the Granicus system, which integrates with the Council’s online Legisearch database so that citizens who call up an online agenda can click on automated bookmarks in archived video streams to see the discussion of specific items.

The King County Council ranks among the Top 10 on a national list that aggregates and tracks webcasting data from more than 500 government agencies affiliated with Granicus. The Council posted 517 webcasts of its meetings and other public policy programming in 2008, the first year that the Council has been webcasting with Granicus. Since inception the number of videos viewed monthly has grown to more than 2,220 unique views, with the most popular program being the recent Video Voters Guide for the new King County Director of Elections.

“King County’s use of this technology allows constituents to access county information with the click of a button, furthering the goal of transparent governance,” said Councilmember Bob Ferguson.

"It is amazing how many people tell me in the grocery store, at the bus stop and around the county that they watched the Council online or on KCTV and saw various issues being discussed,” said Councilmember Kathy Lambert. “King County provides some of the most basic of all government functions, from buses to courts and jails, and it is wonderful to enable citizens to participate in our democracy by watching from the comfort of their homes at all hours of the day and night and seeing for themselves how we are working for them."

The project was developed and implemented by King County TV, the Clerk of the Council, and the Council’s offices of Administration, Information Technology, and Communications.

King County Council meetings are also carried live and replayed regularly on King County TV, the County’s government access channel on Cable Channel 22 throughout the county.

“I am very impressed with the work the King County Council has done to increase government transparency,” says Tom Spengler, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Granicus, Inc, which combines webcasting with public meeting management technology into a single workflow that decreases administrative costs and simplifies public recordkeeping. “The quantity, depth, and accessibility of streaming media content on its Web site truly displays its leadership in creating an environment in which citizens feel more connected to their government. We look forward to working with the Council to put even more public meetings, hearings, and other content online.”

The company is in the midst of its “Drive to a Million” initiative, an effort to bring one million public meetings online in support of the Obama Administration’s goal of creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.

National Sunshine Week is a broad initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know. Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami.