Council goes back to the drawing board for meeting technology

As Creston City Council continues to look at livestreaming and video conferencing options, a new contender threw his hat into the ring. Roger Vicker of Vicker Programming & Services presented two different bids to the council Tuesday.

“I want to start by really congratulating you for looking into getting these meetings online. I think in our modern technology world, it’s really important for the transparency of government to make the meeting available as much as possible,” Vicker said. “I’m kind of a frugal guy so there’s no tie of what specifically I want to do. I just don’t want to do it cheap and simple and I don’t want to do it expensive.”

However, while Vicker had a number of options in his bids, the council began discussing what the actual goal was.

“I don’t know if I’m clear on what the goal is. I feel like I’m seeing equipment that exceeds what our goal needs to be,” councilmember Kiki Scarberry said. “It’s hard for us to pick equipment when we don’t know what our solid goal is.”

Councilmember Jocelyn Blazek said she believed the goal was to be able to video call the city attorney and other experts into meetings while also offering an alternative way of attending or viewing the meeting for constituents through livestreams or recordings. However, she agreed that more specific parameters of what the city wanted needed to be set.

“I like all the different options, but I guess I see where I’d mix and match different things,” Blazek said. “Could we just send you a list like, OK, these are the components we would like to see, and then go from there rather than doing it as an open discussion?”

Councilmember Josh Thompson agreed, suggesting a small committee be formed to iron out the details.

“I don’t want to put the wagon before the horse here,” Thompson said. “If we don’t know what we want, then Mr. Vicker has no idea what he’s supposed to bring to us.”

A committee of these three councilmembers was formed to make a game plan for the new technology. Since these updates were already scheduled in the current budget, which ends in June, the committee must prepare a list to be returned to city officials before the next council meeting.

“I think we’ve kind of done this backwards,” Scarberry said. “We’ve had them bring us equipment, but we haven’t clearly defined what we want.”

In other council news...

The council approved the amended FY26 current budget to account for turnover within the police department and dispatch, as well as timing of the McKinley Lake Improvement Project and Wastewater Nutrient Reduction Project.

After much discussion, the council approved an encroachment agreement for 703 E. Monroe, contingent on the board of adjustments lowering the fence height. This is the fourth encroachment agreement that has come before the council in the last month, something that worried multiple council members.

Though the policy will be coming back for approval at the June 2 council meeting, Creston Code Compliance Officer Bobby Wintermute went over proposed changes to the mowing policy and how May has gone. Pink stickers explaining a lawn is too tall have been purchased, which will then be placed on white flags already owned by the city. The goal is to put these in offending yards to give notice to the residents. Though no flags have been put out yet, Wintermute said there has already been a major dive in offending yards. May 1 saw just under 50, while May 15 had only 18 yards.