The Issaquah City Council unanimously authorized the city administration to begin televising all council committee meetings as part of the council’s goal of public engagement.

Starting in October, all committee meetings will be treated like City Council meetings in that they will be live-streamed on ICTV21 and the city’s u-stream channel, replayed on ICTV21 the next day and put up on YouTube.

Additionally, all committee meetings will be held in the council chambers and will begin at 6:30 p.m. to account for setup after municipal court. Council chambers are already outfitted for filming because of City Council meetings, so this would not cost the city any extra money in equipment.

“It’s been a frustration of mine and a lot of people over the last years that [committee meetings] aren’t held at the same time or televised … and with minutes not being done of a lot of the meetings, it’s really been frustrating being able to follow key issues,” Issaquah resident Mary Lynch said during public comments.

The council’s public engagement goal, set forth in 2015, includes three projects: quarterly meetings between council committee chairs and the city communications team; the creation of a plan to inform council members of the city’s social media dialogue; and the televising of committee meetings.

Autumn Monahan, assistant to the city administrator, gave a presentation on the city’s public engagement goal and an update of the council’s progress on it so far. She said that committee chairs, staff liaisons and the city communications team will begin having quarterly meetings this fall, during which time online feedback will be presented.

The communications team previously discussed the importance of social media and city government during the Aug. 8 council work session.

No additional funds will be needed to televise the committee meetings. Because holding the meetings in the council chambers will save the cost of installing new equipment, the $25,000 that had been set aside for televising meetings will be spent on wireless microphones for the chambers. The Cable TV Fund will cover the cost of $590 per month in extra staff time.

“This is not an appropriation — just logistics,” Councilmember Paul Winterstein clarified before the vote. “There’s really not an ask.”

Monahan said that live-streaming the additional hours will also not present any extra costs, as the city is only charged when going over its limit of 100 hours of live-streaming per month.

“Typically we’ve got about 48 hours per month of viewing, so I think we’ll be OK,” Monahan said.

Council President Stacy Goodman was not present for the vote.