Title
a. Approve and authorize the Chief Information Officer or his designee to execute a Standard Agreement with Vatsula Visuals for broadcast and production services in an amount not to exceed $150,000, for the term of July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023; and
b. Approve and authorize the Chief Information Officer or his designee to execute up to one (1) extension of the Agreement of one (1) year if needed, subject to County Counsel review, provided there is no significant change in Agreement terms and provided any increase in cost is limited to no more than ten (10) percent of the yearly amount ($15,000 maximum increase).
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
a. Approve and authorize the Chief Information Officer or his designee to execute a Standard Agreement with Vatsula Visuals for broadcast and production services in an amount not to exceed $150,000, for the term of July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023; and
b. Approve and authorize the Chief Information Officer or his designee to execute up to one (1) extension of the Agreement of one (1) year if needed, subject to County Counsel review, provided there is no significant change in Agreement terms and provided any increase in cost is limited to no more than ten (10) percent of the yearly amount ($15,000 maximum increase).
SUMMARY:
The Monterey County Government Channel airs the meetings of the Board of Supervisors, the Planning Commission and other public meetings, hearings and events which take place primarily in the Board of Supervisor Chambers. The Agreement with Vatsula Visuals provides for the continuation of services needed to facilitate the recording and broadcast of these meetings as well as video production services on an as-needed basis.
DISCUSSION:
The County of Monterey manages the Monterey County Government Channel and the content broadcast on the channel. There are three types of services that are needed to properly manage the channel and develop the content that is broadcast: 1) Operator Services, which are for recording of public meetings and trainings held in the Board chambers; 2) Broadcasting Services, which are essential to manage the program content uploads, and scheduling of programs to be broadcast on the Monterey County Government Channel; and 3) Programming and Production Services, which are for video shoots and program development and editing in the field.
The Monterey County Government Channel is a government access channel whose operations are primarily funded by cable access fees. The channel is seen on Comcast Cable Channel 28, ATT Channel 99 and streams online on website: www.mgtvonline.com <http://www.mgtvonline.com> and on YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/c/MontereyCountyTV>
The primary programming on the channel are meetings of the Board of Supervisors and other commissions, public agency hearings such as the Planning Commission Meeting, Water Resources meeting, information about county topics of interest and events. In addition, Meetings recording under this contract can also be streamed onto social media platforms in coordination with the Information Technology Department.
Due to the current broadcast and production service vendor retiring, the Information Technology Department requested sole source approval to contract with Vatsula Visuals for one year, which has been approved. The County will be submitting a Request For Proposal (RFP) in the near future to secure a multi-year contract.
Vatsula Visuals will provide the operations, broadcasting, and video production services on an as-requested basis. Those duties include maintaining a schedule of programming where the public may find such information such as online, Comcast, TV Guide or on the channel website; scheduling programs for broadcast; creating informative graphics about County information and transferring and uploading locally created and provided programs to any platform in which the channel is viewed.
The recommended Agreement provides for the continuation of recording and broadcasting meetings and events from the Board of Supervisors Chambers, or any other location in a county building equipped for that purpose, as well as to support production services.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County Counsel has reviewed the Agreement as to legal form. As the administrator of Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access fees, the Information Technology Department has reviewed fiscal provisions.
FINANCING:
This Agreement does not impact the County General Fund. Government channel activities and services are funded by cable franchise fee revenue, which is already included in the Fiscal Year 22-23 Information Technology Department submitted budget.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
The Monterey County Government Channel provides public access and transparency to the decision-making bodies of county government as well as insight into how programs and services rooted in the County’s Strategic Initiatives impact the community through informative programming.
X Economic Development
X Administration
X Health & Human Services
X Infrastructure
X Public Safety
Prepared by: Sandra Shaffer, Management Analyst III, 759-6957
Approved by:
_________________________________ Date: _________
Eric A. Chatham, Chief Information Officer, 759-6920
Attachments:
Vatsula Visuals Agreement
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
Exhibit D