Hays County Commissioners Hold Workshop To Discuss Video Equipment Issues

On Tuesday, the Hays County Commissioners held a workshop to provide an update on procurement for new video streaming system in the Hays County Commissioners Courtroom.

Elaine Cárdenas, Hays County Clerk, gave a brief presentation regarding the county’s process of replacing the county’s video streaming system.

Cárdenas said she knew how frustrated everyone was with their “failures at streaming effectively; it’s a commitment we all have to transparency and citizen engagement.”

The County Clerk’s office in the process of procuring a new streaming system to replace the failing equipment the county currently has.

According to Cárdenas, the county’s live streaming system is made up of several services that are integrated together; the current AV system has been in place since 2002 and multiple components are failing in other systems including the encoder.

Cárdenas said the county’s contract with Granicus lapsed for several years until last year when the company came under new management.

Currently, the county is under a “hastily drawn” three-year contract; however, Cárdenas said Granicus has recognized that the current package isn’t working for the county.

The county clerk’s office has reached out to other county clerk’s offices to discuss their systems and researched the various vendors offering service.

Cárdenas said they have submitted a list of 12 questions, which are weighted based on the county’s priorities, to each of the four vendors the county has under consideration.

Over the last couple of months, the county has experienced growing issues with their live streaming services.

According to Cárdenas, the county is unable to record meetings when the wifi is down; due to equipment issues, the commissioners’ court meeting on June 11 was unable to be live-streamed and a large portion of it was not recorded.

Cárdenas said the county does not have the resources to write its own contract with the new company; however, she intends to ask for certain protections in the future.

Currently, the county’s contract with Granicus can only be broken by the vendor.

Cárdenas told commissioners that the company has been made aware of the county’s current issues with their contract and package and agrees that the present agreement is not right; while she believes they will be willing to break the contract, she said the county’s legal counsel may have to be brought in to have it done in a timely manner.

Cárdenas gave commissioners a list of fours items, which she wants to include in the new contract considerations.

• Option years instead of automatic renewals
• Right to terminate for any reason
• Specified response time
• Single Point of Contact with authority to commit organization

Cárdenas projects the county will spend $200,000 over the next five years for the current system, which isn’t working; if the county were to update the system and sign a new contract, the county will cost an estimated $300,000.

The new equipment could provide the court with additional features such as real-time captioning, better video quality and wireless microphones to accommodate disabled residents.

According to the staff, the Auditor’s office recommends the county pays for the equipment out of the Records Management and Archive fund; last year, the county ended the fiscal year with $1.6 million.

Cárdenas said she hopes to have a decision on a vendor and a contract back to commissioners in the next few weeks.