Lethbridge City Council, committee meetings set to resume

The newly-updated Council Chamber at Lethbridge City Hall is ready.

Beginning this week, a regular slate of Lethbridge City Council’s Standing Policy Committee (SPC) meetings are set to return with Economic SPC on Wednesday, September 13, followed by Cultural and Social SPC on Thursday, September 14.

The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 19. All meeting agendas can be viewed here and the 2023 Council calendar can be viewed here.

Those attending in person and watching online will see and hear some positive differences, as several technological upgrades and infrastructure additions have been recently completed in Council Chamber. They include:

• New audio tabletop units with new microphones for better audio clarity on livestreams
• Four new automatic cameras
• New electronic nameplates that can be quickly and easily changed for different users and meeting types
• Accessible entry to main Chamber doors
• Replacement of large viewing screens
• Replacement of monitors in the atrium
• Culver City Boardroom upgrade
• Increased reliability through system infrastructure updates

For a variety of reasons, this refresh was required to support the current needs and expectations of City Council and the public to maintain accessible meetings in an ever-changing online and technology-driven world. The new upgrades will also enhance the adaptability for other meetings in Council Chamber, such as the Lethbridge Police Commission and other Boards, Commissions and Committees.

Lethbridge City Council meetings have been livestreamed online since 2011 (the City of Lethbridge’s YouTube page is here), but some of the infrastructure in Council Chamber had not been upgraded since the current City Hall opened in 2000. These upgrades will ensure better reliability and amplify the meeting experience for Council members, as well as strengthen the public’s ability to participate in the democratic process. The 2023 upgrades are being funded through existing lifecycle budgets. Read more on the background here.

With the upgrades to the audio and visual equipment, we will cease posting live updates through the City Clerk X account (formerly Twitter). For news releases related to Council, we will continue posting to our website and news subscription service, as well as the City of Lethbridge social media channels. We will continue to post meeting recaps with Council Highlights after each Council meeting.

Several changes will also be coming to the SPC governance structure following Council’s Organizational Meeting on October 31, ahead of the 2024 Council calendar launch. We will have more information to share following the October meeting.