As they entered the room for Monday night’s meeting, Pacific City Councilmembers were greeted with a new amenity near their nameplates.

A microphone.

The addition is part of Pacific’s new audio-visual system that enables people to watch City Council meetings online for the first time at www.pacificwa.gov.

“There’s no more moving things around or knocking things over,” Mayor Leanne Guier said with a laugh.

Guier expects it to take a month before the meetings can be streamed live over the Internet. For now, she thinks they will be posted the following day. The City Council usually meets on the second and fourth Mondays of each month.

“I’m really excited about it,” Guier said. “I believe it’s an opportunity for us to get more community involvement.”

Guier said she has heard from many residents who are not able to attend meetings, which start at 6:30 p.m.

“I hear from many people in our community that they would love to get down here for a council meeting, but the timing just doesn’t work out,” Guier said. “Now they have an opportunity where they can turn it on if there’s something they really want to see.”

Guier said the audio-visual system, which cost $60,000, has been a priority since she assumed her role in July 2013. Pacific officials have a contract with the City of Auburn’s information technology department to provide the service.

“I think it’s all about transparency and enabling everyone to see what’s going on and the decisions that their elected officials are making for them,” Guier said.

With the new audio-visual system, Guier and Pacific’s technology committee also is looking to upgrade the City’s website.

“It’s not very user-friendly,” she said. “It doesn’t really show a lot of the things we can do and it doesn’t really have a lot of interaction. It’s in serious need of help.

“Those two items tying together is really going to enhance the accessibility for our community.”

Guier also said the audio-visual system will save the City money. That is because the council chamber also serves as the City’s courtroom. Most people arrested in Pacific are sent to SCORE jail in Des Moines. In the past, Guier said that meant they were transported back from the jail for court proceedings. She said the audio-visual system, which enables prisoners to be conferenced in through a new 80-inch television screen in Pacific’s council chamber, will minimize that.

Earth Day plans

Pacific’s annual city cleanup day is April 23. Guier said volunteers will meet at 10 a.m. that day at the city’s community center.

“I’ll have little maps and areas where we will send crews, groups of people to go,” Guier said. “I’ll have white bags with handles on them and our pick up Pacific logo on them.”

Pacific is partnering with Waste Management to provide trash and recycle bins.

Participants, Guier said, will receive a lapel pin.

There also will be a hazardous waste dropoff on that date at Alpac Elementary School. That event is sponsored by Pacific’s neighboring city, Algona, but Guier said residents from both cities can participate.