A bill passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2023 mandated that all governing bodies that have regular meetings are required to live stream those meetings and archive recordings for 90 days, and Marshall County will move to comply with that mandate.
The law gave July 1 of this year as the deadline and Monday at the meeting of the Marshall County Commissioners, President Stan Klotz approached the board and county IT Director Mike Marshall with a request from the county’s Township trustees for any assistance they could provide.
Klotz said that the townships were not set up to comply with the order. While the Commissioners Meeting Room in the County Office Building is set up for the purpose, Klotz was hesitant about the security issue of having the building open that many nights.
Commissioner Jesse Bohannon also inquired if the current live-streaming system could be upgraded to allow participation by those watching online.
Marshall pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of several options. He said that setting up the system to provide the service was easy enough, but branching out the system from the County Building to other locations was a totally different thing.
Regarding the participation of those attending online, he also said that was easy enough, but if it was opened for public participation, there would have to be a moderator for the system during the meeting.
Commissioners Attorney Sean Surrissi stated that two municipalities that he has worked with — the City of Plymouth and the Town of Culver — have had success using Microsoft Teams. He served as the moderator while working with Plymouth, and the Clerk-Treasurer performs the task for Culver.
Bohannon stated that elected officials that need to attend online was the first concern.
Using the smaller conference room that is part of the Emergency Management office was discussed. Currently, other boards use that space for their meetings.
Marshall told the Commissioners he would look into the possibilities and report back to them.
