Granicus Fully Managed Video Production Contract
At a glance
Based on auto-generated captions; names, numbers and details may be misheard.
- What: A proposed contract with Granicus for fully managed production of council, committee and commission meetings.
- Where it stands: a first briefing. Hovenier sought direction to place it on the November 2 consent agenda; the committee instead asked for it to come back for another briefing.
- Next: staff to provide a comparison of options, a contingency and transition plan, and a list of other cities using the service.
The proposal
- Hovenier of the Executive Department said an offsite Granicus director would produce each meeting live (camera switching, graphics, live captions, encoding to YouTube, RCTV and Facebook, agenda-linked video and timestamped post-production). The contract covers 150 managed meetings and 340 captioning hours per year and plugs into Legistar.
- Costs as stated: about $71,000 one-time, about $99,000 per year, net new cost of about $82,000 in the first year after replacing an existing Granicus contract; two years plus two optional years; subscription fees are in the 2027-2028 budget.
- Reasons given: reduce reliance on one communications staff member who spends up to 16 hours a week on meeting video, federal ADA Title II web accessibility rules coming in 2027, and timing with a December chambers hardware upgrade. Go-live planned for 2027.
- He said no jobs would be cut, the operations center is believed to be in Texas (to be confirmed), and an AI addendum for translation is still being negotiated.
Concerns
- Forsythe questioned who would fix physical equipment problems, whether the city clerk would need technical training, the cost against 16 hours a week of work, and said she was not confident about consent on November 2.
- Kritzer wanted assurance that staff capable of on-site help remain and that the public's viewing experience is unchanged.
- Stewart said chairing while managing technology is demanding and wanted everyone comfortable before moving forward.
- Prakriya (presiding) asked for a comparison of keeping it in-house versus this contract, including costs, quality and reliability. All councilmembers showed support for another briefing.
Sources
Discussion time
About 15 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).
| Meeting | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-20 - Committee of the Whole | 15 |
Log
- 2026-10-29 - City Council Study Session Meeting - Staff cited about $200,000 startup and $100,000 a year versus $21,000 to $34,000 a year in-house; straw-poll outcome unclear from the captions.
- 2026-10-20 - Committee of the Whole — First briefing; committee asked for another briefing with option comparison, contingency plan and city references instead of the November 2 consent agenda.