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No video yet of Barrington Hills meetings

By a tie vote, the Barrington Hills village board this week narrowly rejected upgrading its meetings’ audio webcasts to video.

While the board did vote in favor of a $5,000 equipment upgrade for the quality of the audio itself, the 3-3 vote on a $36,000 video component failed to make any changes on that front.

Trustee Joseph Messer was the absent board member at Monday’s meeting, but Village President Robert Abboud — who voted in favor of video — said he’d wait to call the vote again until there’s legitimate new information to be considered, not simply full attendance of the board.

In addition to the upfront equipment costs, video would also require an additional $4,000 to $5,000 per year to maintain live web streaming service.

Because cable television arrived late in Barrington Hills, the village does not have one single Comcast service like Barrington — which does broadcast its meetings there in addition to posting them on its website.

In fact, the majority of Barrington Hills households receive satellite TV service, which is why the village is considering only web service.

“Our approach was to jump right over the TV technology and go to live streaming on the web,” Abboud said.

The three trustees who voted against the video upgrade were Elaine Ramesh, Karen Selman and Fritz Gohl. Abboud said their individual concerns ranged from cost to potential political impacts.

“I recognize the downside of this,” Abboud said. “It’s going to get clipped and end up in political ads. And I’m not sure every member of the public wants their tax money spent in that way.

“I’ve got to tell you, I understand both sides of this argument,” he added. “But I feel transparency trumps all.”

But for Gohl, finances were the one and only reason for his no vote.

“It’s a great idea,” Gohl said. “The only reason I voted no was for the cost. If we look at in another six months, maybe the money will be available for the video. We’re trying to save money like everyone else.”

In fact, the reason why the audio component was added about a year ago was to try to cut down on the cost of court reporter fees, Abboud said. But the quality of the audio left a lot to be desired, triggering this week’s vote for an upgrade.

Abboud said the village has been working in earnest for the past two years on better public access through its website, which was a cornerstone of his last re-election campaign.

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