North Myrtle Beach says they don’t record their meetings. See the video for yourself
Two years ago, then city manager Mike Mahaney showed a video of a city council meeting to The Sun News. Two days ago, a Freedom of Information Act request for a meeting video yielded nothing.
The confusion and change have gone unannounced and unaddressed by the city until now.
It all started a few summers ago in July 2022, when Mahaney had a video recording of at least one council meeting, and showed it to a Sun News reporter and editor.
This meeting happened after a July 6, 2022 special called council meeting , when Mahaney made a comment about unhoused people getting free bus tickets and coming to North Myrtle Beach from Myrtle Beach, reporting at the time shows .
The purpose of showing the video days later was for Mahaney to show what he said at the meeting to a reporter and editor. A copy of the video was provided at the time.
Two years later, in 2024, a request for a copy of a city council meeting was denied because city staff said they don't record video. A second FOIA request yielded an audio recording in the same file format as the 2022 video Mahaney showed, but with no images on the screen.
"I can guarantee you, we don't video record," city spokesperson Lauren Jessie said on Thursday. "But because the format is mp4 that's why you're seeing the black screen in what you received in FOIA."
The switch between the apparent screen recording video in the summer of 2022 and now is due to issues with the audio the North Myrtle Beach IT department said they no longer screen record what's on the council member's screens during meetings.
This change happened following the Jan. 9, 2023 city council meeting, Jessie said on Thursday.
"The audio system only records in mp4 format, and any images within these recordings are the result of what was shown on the computer screen in council chambers during the meeting," she said. "When a speaker would switch between the computer screen and the document camera, the audio would cut off each time it was switched back and forth."
Jessie said numerous times that the city doesn't record video or stream council meetings anymore, but starting in January 2025, they will start doing so again, adding that the city's IT department is currently working on more reliable archival system through live streaming.
"During COVID, City Council Meetings were video recorded. Once protocols relaxed surrounding COVID and City Council Meetings returned to in-person, they stopped video recording," Jessie said in response to a question asking about the reason behind stopping the streaming services. "The City does audio record the City Council Meetings. We do not have transcripts of the meetings; however, we do keep minutes."
The reason why the city stopped video recording after the height of COVID-19 is because protocols relaxed and council meetings returned to in-person in May 2020, she explained.
At the time, now acting city manager Ryan Fabbri said they halted streaming meetings due to low viewership.
"The City does audio record the City Council Meetings," Jessie said. "The audio recordings also help with writing the minutes."
Jessie said they will conduct a "test run" of the streaming technology at their Nov. 20, 2024 City Council Workshop before rolling it out on a regular basis in the new year.
Those videos will be available to the public on the city's Facebook page and YouTube channel, she said.
