By Kate Stockrahm
Flint City Clerk Davina Donahue has shared a new way to watch Flint City Council meetings: an official YouTube channel.
“I am happy to announce the formal launch of the Flint City Council’s YouTube Channel: Official Flint City Council,” Donahue said in a press release on April 3, 2024. “All meetings of the City Council will be broadcast live on this channel.”
When reached for further comment, Donahue told East Village Magazine that she decided to launch the channel after learning of public “confusion” following the end of a city contract with Flint-based Spectacle Productions on June 30, 2023.
“The contract with Spectacle Productions was to provide video taping of council meetings,” the city clerk wrote in an April 8 email, noting that the channel was never an “official product” of the City of Flint, Flint City Council, or her office.
“Since the public was confused about the ‘unofficial’ nature of the existing channel, I decided to launch an official Flint City Council channel in order to provide the public with a way to clearly see and hear what was happening during council meetings,” she said.
When asked about financing the channel, Donahue noted that “as a municipal entity there is no charge to broadcast on YouTube” using the recently upgraded audio visual equipment in Flint City Council Chambers.
The new Flint City Council YouTube channel can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialFlintCityCouncil.