‘Lights, camera, call to order.’  City Council to stream meetings on Zoom video.

The Gig Harbor City Council will begin live-streaming meetings on Zoom video beginning next week, according to city officials. Up to now, the virtual meetings had been available only by telephone.

The video streams will begin with the council meeting set for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9.

“The public will now be able to view our Council Meetings live online by using the designated Zoom link,” said Josh Stecker, the assistant city clerk. “When appropriate, the public may make comments during the live broadcast by logging in to join the meeting.”

It is not necessary to download the Zoom client, Stecker said, but that is the recommended way to access the meeting if a person wishes to speak.

“People can join the meeting directly in a web browser — Chrome and Firefox will work best,” he said. “Some browsers like Safari do not have full audio support.”

The city is using a Zoom product called Webinar, which allows up to 100 people to share the screen at the same time. Each meeting will have a different Webinar ID and password, which will be listed in the council agenda on the city website, www.cityofgigharbor.net, and in The Gateway’s Public Meetings column.

To join, go to www.Zoom.us/join and enter the Webinar ID, and, when prompted, the password.

Stecker said only full City Council meetings will be in the Zoom Webinar format for now. The rest of the meetings will still be call-in only. Once all city staff are trained on the program, other meetings, such as the Planning Commission and the Hearing Examiner, will be added.

This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 5:30 AM.