FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 9, 2001

CARY, NC – In another apparent first in the state move, Cary--North Carolina’s "Technology Town"-- has added to its award-winning website unedited audio recordings of Town Council meetings. Along with complete agendas and summary minutes of regular Town Council, Planning & Development, and Operations Committee meetings, cyber citizens can listen in on the actual discussions that took place at a time and in a place that’s convenient for them. The Town’s goal is to have the audio recordings of these meetings online within two business days of the meetings’ taping. Links to the Real Media audio files are located along with each meeting’s agenda and minutes links as well as under WHAT’S NEW. The online audio action comes one month after the Town Council directed staff to add this important online component to the already robust site.

The idea to move towards offering multimedia files on Cary’s site originated several years ago with the Town’s Information Services Advisory Board, a 10-member citizen group appointed by the Town Council to make suggestions on how the government can better exchange information with citizens. A key proponent of the idea was the then ISAB member and chair Harold Weinbrecht, now a Cary Town Council member. Weinbrecht and fellow Council members wanted the two Council committees—Operations and Planning & Development—added to the web audio lineup since these meetings often include detailed analysis of issues not often discussed at length in the regular full Council meetings. Also, the two committees meet during the workday, times that are not always convenient for many citizens to attend.

Although the resources were available, the Town of Cary decided against adding full video versions of the meetings at this time since most citizens lack the high-speed connections necessary to provide a positive viewing experience, and even with such connections, common current technology only provides small pictures with extremely jerky images.

"We work very hard not to do things ‘just because we can’", said Susan Moran. "We want to make sure that such actions truly support Council’s broader goals, that there’s a clear citizen benefit with what we’re doing. At this point, audio-only makes the most sense." Moran noted, however, that in special cases, the Town will—and has—added full video to its site, such as with the recent short video calling for citizens to volunteer for boards and commissions.

The Town has been broadcasting live and recorded meetings on its government access channel since 1998 and this year hired its first fulltime cable and video services staff member. He, along with the Town’s web team in its Technology Services Department, handles the recording, formatting, and posting totally in-house.

A 2000 study by the Town indicated that about 85 percent of Cary residents have access to the Internet at home or at work, that’s up from 78 percent in 1998 and nearly twice the national average according to some reports. "Having meetings available online means that we can offer thousands of citizens who don’t have cable the opportunity to hear word-of-word their government in action," said Moran.

The Town continues to work towards making its mapping data—Geographic Information System or GIS—available on its site as well as adding online utility billing and online parks, recreation & cultural resources registration. All of this is in addition to the third major overhaul of the site to be completed this fiscal year, designed to move the site to a topic-based orientation.

The Town’s website was originally developed in May of 1997 for the primary purpose of sending information to Town Council electronically and, thus, eliminating the distribution of paper packets used by most governments. Since that time, everyone—citizens, media, Town staff and elected officials—has been able to get Council meeting agendas and supplemental materials online at the same moment--about seven days prior to most meetings. With computers at their table, the Council even uses the web agenda materials in place of paper packets during their actual meetings at Town Hall.

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