Kenmore City Council voted unanimously at the July 21 meeting to install a camera in council chambers so they can livestream meetings for residents.

Council voted on a one camera set up with an additional piece of hardware that will allow powerpoints to be streamed also. Cost for one camera is $3,594 and a presentation integration is $2,900.

“I am proud of this decision,” said Nigel Herbig, a councilmember who campaigned on the idea in 2013. “I first became involved in Kenmore politics when I came to a meeting at the new city hall and realized that we had a state-of-the-art building that was wired for audio and video, yet we didn’t livestream council meetings. That just didn’t seem right in this day and age. Citizens were either forced to come to city hall to follow the action live (which many can’t), or listen to an audio recording the following day.”

Councilmembers believe this decision will make their actions more transparent to the public.

“We owe it to our citizens to make every available effort to be as open and transparent and accessible as possible,” Herbig said. “Livestreaming our meetings is, in 2014, the least we can do. Many smaller cities don’t do this, but Kenmore is taking an affirmative step saying that we want to lead on the issue of open and transparent government and that we want our citizens to have every chance to participate in their government.”

Right now, citizens have access to all archived meetings through online streaming and these files are time stamped. In the future, residents will be able to download copies of files from Kenmore’s website for free.

Council meetings are held the second, third and fourth Mondays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Kenmore City Hall’s council chambers, located at 18120 68th Ave. NE, Kenmore. These meetings are open to the public, and public comments are accepted at the beginning of the meeting.

For more information, visit www.cityofkenmore.com/citycouncil.