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# Online to Santa Monica City Hall
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/online-to-santa-monica-city-hall/
- Published: 2002-02-13T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:01:56.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Public meetings available live via Internet*

E-government may sound like a dot-com concept gone bust, but the idea is running strong in Santa Monica.

In addition to already broadcasting city council meetings electroni-cally over the Internet, the city last week began broadcasting all plan-ning commission meetings via the Internet.

“The planning commission and the council are the two bodies that are required to meet on a regular basis,” said city spokeswoman Judy Rambeau. “So it made sense to add planning to our efforts of making all city meetings more accessible to people in the community.”

However, Rambeau said there were no current plans to begin broadcasting any of the other 28 city boards and commissions.

“The problem is that we can easily do the meetings that are held in the council’s chambers,” she said. “But the others would be more difficult.”

The city began broadcasting council meetings over the Web about two years ago, shortly after a high-speed Internet connection was installed, officials said.

Since the city had already purchased the equipment needed to run the new City Hall Internet network, the costs were minimal for broadcasting meetings live over the Web, said city network administrators.

“We looked at it and found there was really no extra cost,” said Keith Kurtz, the city’s Internet systems coordinator. “Or at least the costs were not too significant.”

Under the current system, 40 residents can simultaneously watch meetings over the Internet, though officials say there has never been that many logged on at once.

Officials say about 350 people are logging onto the service each month, or 3,632 people have tried to use the service over the past 11 months.

“You can see this service is being used,” said Kurtz. “But I’m willing to speculate only someone with a strong interest in Santa Monica affairs will want to watch an entire Santa Monica Council meeting.”

When the idea first came up Kurtz said city officials wanted to know who would possibly use such a service and was it worth the cost.

“Before I got out of that meeting, I had received two unsolicited e-mails asking if we had considered web casting the meetings,” said Kurtz. “I think it’s probably useful for people who don’t have cable TV or who live outside the city limits.”

During last year’s elections, the city decided to web cast interviews with candidates. After the interviews were finished, residents could return and have the sessions replayed on their computer screens at a later time.

“There was very heavy traffic volume from that,” said Kurtz. “In fact, it was so successful that now from time to time we will capture some video and make that available online as well.”

When a recent council meeting ran until the early morning hours, many residents missed a city presentation on the Civic Center Redevelopment Plan. More than 150 people had asked to speak on the issue, but when their time came to speak most had gone home.

To compensate, the city posted the 45-minute presentation on its Web site so residents were able to have the session rebroadcast at their convenience.

“I’m sure there are people that will take advantage of this,” said planning commission chair Kelley Olsen, whose group is now being web cast. “Once it begins to be advertised, I really think many more people will watch.”

To get connected, log onto the city’s Web site, www.santa-monica.org, click on “government” and then select the city council or the planning commission link.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 13, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/021302.pdf?ref=smdp.com)