HUBBARD — A city resident emphasized the value of transparency and accountability as he questioned city council about the status of regularly scheduled meetings being recorded and published during the meeting’s public comments portion.

Michael Banic, a resident, returned to city council chambers Monday night to ask officials about a camera purchased three years ago to broadcast meetings online — recalling at a Nov. 17 meeting that Mike Mogg, D-3rd Ward, had previously asked about it.

Banic said residents were told that the city lacked an IT department, which was not true.

“The city has an IT department — it’s called infinIT. What action has been taken since the last meeting to install this camera for transparency and accountability purposes?” Banic said. “We have a large population of elderly people who can’t make the meetings and could watch from home, so it would make sense if we put this camera in that the city purchased with COVID money.”

Council president William Williams said he could not answer the question, as he did not have anything to do with its purchase.

Williams said Mogg was contacting infinIT about the camera’s installation, but he wasn’t at the meeting to answer Banic’s questions.

Banic said it was a shame that he had to do a public records request to get information on the camera.

“Because nobody knows who ordered it, who’s in charge of it, who’s supposed to install it — we have an IT department, we don’t have an IT department,” Banic said. “It’s not much to ask for, I don’t think. I mean, our police officers wear body cams.”

Councilwoman Robin Zambrini, D-2nd Ward, admitted she was involved in purchasing items with COVID-19 funds.

“We got a camera because we didn’t know what was going to happen — if COVID was going to continue, if we were even going to have council meetings,” Zambrini said. “COVID went away, so that kind of took (to) the back burner.”

“It’s no conspiracy that we don’t want to put it up; it’s just the fact that the reason why we bought it in the first place never occurred.”

DATA CENTER ORDINANCE

Also during Monday’s meeting, Margie Johnson, a resident, asked about the status of a data center ordinance that was submitted to city council, which officials recognized as received communications at the start of the meeting.

Law director Mark Villano said city council will consider it, and what she had written and submitted was not an ordinance — only something for them to read and consider.

“We would not accept what was submitted. We would draft an ordinance; council has to make that decision, so if council decides they want to pursue,” Villano said.

Johnson said she wanted the city to notify residents about the proposed ordinance, but Villano said it was not an ordinance the council had considered passing.

“It’s not an ordinance; it’s a letter,” Villano said. “That is not an ordinance, it’s not enforceable, and it hasn’t even been proposed yet by council.”

Villano said city council will read the letter, then consider what they wish to do moving forward — but he confirmed the city did receive her letter.