City to pay $190,000 to upgrade 2-year-old sound system

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The City of Menifee will spend $190,000 to upgrade a failing sound system in the City Council chambers – just two years after the original system was installed.

According to a City document that was approved by the City Council last week, “Over the last several months, the current AV system has continued to experience various operating challenges. This has resulted in difficulties in effectively conducting meetings and producing a quality video stream for the public.”

Anyone who has attended or remotely listened to a City Council meeting in recent years knows that AV technology in the council chambers has long been a problem. In previous years, when Menifee 24/7 first began broadcasting council meetings via Facebook from the old City Hall building, complaints from listeners about low microphone volume were common.

The City’s move to a leased office building to use as City Hall in 2019 resulted in a more spacious council chambers and larger dais to accommodate all department heads. But it wasn’t long before microphones began cutting out and screeching audio feedback interrupted council meetings. This was evident both in virtual meetings broadcast during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and since meetings have again been open to the public.

In its justification for the request for new funds for upgrades, a City agenda item stated, “Several of the dais microphone jacks are broken and need replacement. The whole microphone system was not completely installed originally and cannot be augmented now due to parts being unavailable. A new dais microphone system for Council and staff positions is recommended.”

The staff report also states that:

-- Broadcast audio feeds originate from an automatic microphone mixer system that was not completely installed and configured, resulting in poor sound quality.

-- The cabling supporting the dais microphone system, request to speak, voting system, computers and presentation display is a mix of shielded and unshielded cabling, resulting in intermittent interference with these systems.

-- The existing video switcher used to produce the video stream does not have sufficient capacity to handle the requirements of all the different public meetings held in the council chambers.

Reasons for the reportedly inferior original equipment purchase and installation are unclear. The City did not have an information technology director at the time. City manager Armando Villa put IT projects under the supervision of assistant city manager Jeff Wyman, who had no IT experience on his resume. Wyman left City employment earlier this year. Ron Puccinelli was hired in the new position of IT director and inherited a mess that has to be fixed.

Puccinelli sits at the dais with other department heads during City Council meetings. During his presentation to council members at the Aug. 4 meeting on another matter -- a proposal to create a public access cable TV channel for the City -- Puccinelli thanked them for approving the $190,000 expense for the sound system. That expense had been approved without discussion as part of the consent calendar earlier in the meeting.

Later in the meeting, when microphones and council members' computer monitors began to fail, Puccinelli did not leave his seat to check the problem, nor did he apologize or provide an explanation. As was the case in previous such situations, he sat silently while an IT Department employee rushed forward from the control room in the back of the chambers to deal with the problem.

Another part of the problem is the inefficiency of computer software designed to conduct and show the results of electronic council votes on a TV screen in council chambers. Often, the system does not work properly. Virtually every meeting, Mayor Bill Zimmerman asks city clerk Sarah Manwaring if she is “going to try” electronic voting on issues rather than take a voice vote. Many times, attempts to conduct the vote electronically have failed, resulting in a voice vote.

Recently, with council meetings again fully open to the public, electronic voting has been conducted, but without results shown on the screen. No voice vote is taken. Council members punch a key on their computer terminals and their vote goes to an unseen results screen.

In one case at the Aug. 4 meeting, Zimmerman mistakenly announced to the audience that an item had passed, 5-0. It was several moments before the mistake was realized and it was announced that the vote was actually 4-1. The identity of the dissenting voter was never announced to the public for the record.

Puccinelli did not respond Thursday to an email sent by Menifee 24/7 to Villa in which Puccinelli was copied, seeking comment. Neither did Villa, who has not responded to other media inquiries from Menifee 24/7 in recent weeks.

In the discussion item at last week’s council meeting regarding the proposal to create a public access cable TV channel, a staff report stated, “As part of its Strategic Vision Plan, the City Council set a goal to build an accessible, interconnected community and a responsive and transparent government.”

Maybe the city manager didn’t get the memo.