Plumas County Board of Supervisors meetings have been live streamed since 4 Feb 2014. More importantly, we now have most of the bugs worked out! I could really use some feedback from you about whether or not you see this as a valuable resource, that which could be done to improve upon it and, any other suggestions you might wish to convey. While streaming is quite useful to the Board members and staff, for reference to specific agenda items, it is for you that the system was implemented.

Proceedings are easily viewed while the Supervisors are meeting, in “real time”. However, suppose you read a newspaper article or heard about something the Board discussed, or a report that was presented and you wish you could have attended the meeting or watched while it was live streamed. It is not TOO LATE – all video records of meetings are archived and can be accessed through the Plumas County website. Click on the button titled “Live Board Meetings” in the table on the left of the screen, beneath the County Districts interactive map. This will take you to a listing of the meetings by date; select the appropriate date and then click on “View” which will take you to the video and agenda for that meeting. If there is an agenda item for that meeting that is of particular interest, click on that agenda item in the listing below the video to view that specific agenda item; you may have to scroll through the list.

At the 6 May 2014 (1:30 p.m.) meeting of the Board of Supervisors, for example, we received a presentation from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife regarding the removal of trout from Gold Lake in the Bucks Lake Wilderness area. The trout are being removed in hopes that the Yellow Legged Frog population (there are 10 of them in the vicinity) will migrate to the lake and take up residence. The Board room was packed to the extent it was standing room only inside the chambers, with many standing in the adjacent hallway – outside the chambers. This is not atypical of a hotly debated issue. Even if you attended the meeting in person, you may well have missed part, or most of what was said. If standing in the hall, you would also have missed the interaction throughout, always an important element of the process. To better illustrate this, you should visit the frog presentation & discussion – Agenda item 24.  While you might find this report and discussion of interest, you will definitely get a feel for why streaming (with archives) is so beneficial to you, when issues of interest arise. Or those you would like to refer to others.

As I have expressed in the past, while we as Board members appreciate those of you who attend our meetings and engage, there are many of you, who for a number of reasons (time, weather, distance to Quincy …) cannot do so. It is for all of you we have taken the long overdue step in providing streaming technology to you, wherever you may be, at your leisure.

In the near future, many of the other committees and commissions are planning to live stream their meetings as well, having seen the benefits in outreach and participation. Plumas County is finally joining the modern age!

Please take a moment to visit the website and let me know what you think!!! This is your government; we are making decisions on your behalf.