Congratulations ! City Clerk, Amy Burton, and staff post six most recent City commission meeting videos on line Friday hours ahead of self imposed deadline !

We weren't sure it could be done by Friday. Working with graphic files on line is never easy. Some files for reason unknown just refuse to cooperate. Then there is the issue of compatibility Apparently the first attempt at posting the videos last fall  crashed the system and  subsequent  restorations of the videos were either not attempted or didn't work.

As of last Friday however the City Clerk's office has posted the last six meetings of the Mayor McClure (our current Mayor)  administration  on line. They span a date range from August 14th 2012  to January 8th. 2013.
Bloomfield Hills Cable Television  who films the meetings has been prompt in   providing timely videos. The Bloomfield Township  has had it's  January 14th  meeting on line for weeks.To access the videos one needs to go to the City Website ( a link is provided at the upper right hand corner of this page.  Then one clicks on the middle box again on the upper right hand side of the page . It is labeled Front Desk. Then one one clicks on Video on Demand which appears on the upper right top of page. That will produce all six videos. Click on the arrow in middle of the video to start it. Clicking on the four corner icon  in the lower  right  enlarges the video to full screen..Placing the cursor on the bottom of the screen  produces a forward and back toggle  lever which works rather crudely by dragging the time indicator forward or back  It is not made for hot dogging.

We will discuss in a future post how to gain enhanced control of the video so that you may truly fast forward and reverse while dropping  in and out of meeting  segments that  interest at will. The point of this article is to tell you what's there, what is not , when it will be there  and how you can find it when is there.We will also introduce you  Meetings and Agendas. You will find meetings and agendas  on the home page of the City Website  in the upper right. A box entitled Minutes and Agenda at the very bottom of all the boxes. Clicking on this will produce the following screen. It is a like reading the book before  seeing the movie.  Maybe one should say it is like reading the company handout before actually witnessing the event. In the printed minutes every thing is PC. The Mayor approves them and may have some say in what is written  Then the City Commission approves them. Our City for the longest time didn't make the minutes available until they were approved at the next meeting. That  is not what the Open Meetings Act requires.. By law you (and that means anyone)  are entitled to a copy of the draft minutes eight business days after the meeting occurred.Usually you have kick,scream, and if you are requesting in person threaten hold your breath and  turn blue to get a copy in less than 20 or so days. This month in regard to draft minutes we did not so any of that  because we were raising a ruckus about the videos. Now how to worek the box below..

 At first all the choices on the left side of the  page have a uniform color and no dates appear in the right hand side. By selecting items from the left in this case City Commission  and then Minutes  yellow folders with dates (2002 through 2012) appear on the right. Selecting a year produces all minutes of all the city commission minutes of that calendar year. As a result of our last City election Sarah McClure was re-elected  and Michael Dul elected to City Commission. The Commission then elected McClure mayor on May 15th.2012. Clicking that date marked in blue will produce those minutes in scroll down form. Since Mayor McClure has been elected 12 City Commissions were held, of which 9 nine were filmed and the most recent six are now posted on the City website.
The three that were not filmed  were two July 17 and October 15th  concerning  a closed sessions involving Labor negotiations (which are not open to the public)  and a July 31st emergency meeting about a broken water main which happened during the Kennsington Road Construction, That meeting was open to the public and detailed minutes are provided but was not filmed. Possibly due to budget or time constraints. All six meeting  presented  on video are consecutive in reverse order  August 11th 2012  through  January 8th.2013.

 The first three meetings of the McClure administration (May 15th, June 12th and July 10th) are on film but not as yet posted. The inaugural meeting of May 15th  important as it  shows the election of Mayor, appointments made  and discuses goals and objectives for the coming year.The June and July meetings are important in that  they show the further development of the commission and the thought process that prompted the commission to switch from an annual election to one every other year.

None of these videos that residents paid for have vanished but some are harder to find than others. This publication  in the spirit of cooperation has corresponded  with the City Clerk's office in discovering the whereabouts of our videos and where they might be placed when retrieved.

Apparently we both s more or less simultaneously stumbled on them on Vimeo (more on Vimeo next post) where they are part of a 1800  movie film strip parade going back three years or longer. The strip includes High School sports,  The Franklin Labor Day parades, panel shows, heath and fitness shows,and more. Essentially everything Bloomfield Hills Cable Television has filmed over the last three years. Labeling or lack of  by BCTV  and one case a computer file  glitch may be why the May through July 2012 Videos have  yet to appear  . The May 15th Commission meeting  is labeled correct;y but  can only be seen by starting  the video. The June  City Commission Meeting is labeled only as "Bloomfield  Hills City Commission"  and the film's actual date can only be determined  by it's position  in the film strip  and noting the events of the June meeting. The July  10th meeting  is labeled correctly but there is a glitch in one of the supplied down loads. The  MP4 download works.  The  WMV file down load  has a glitchesd  before completion. Maybe BCTV can make a another copy of the July meeting  in WMV for us.

The City Clerk's office has said it appreciates our input and we appreciate being appreciated.  We appreciate that re-displaying  all  2 and half years  of  our City's City Commission meeting videos so the residents may view them is "an on going works in progress." We be support that work and the efforts of the City Clerk and her staff. As they say on Television stay tuned.