Northampton County’s IT department is outsourced to Vision Technologies, a Maryland-based company, under a contract that could cost taxpayers up to $33 million over the next 13 years. About this time last year, this private contractor began assuring county officials and the public that all county council and committee meetings would be uploaded to YouTube within a matter of months. As recently as December, Vision told county officials this would happen by February. Nothing has changed. Council President Ron Heckman has had enough, and voiced his displeasure at council’s Feb. 23 meeting to Fiscal Affairs Director Steve Barron.

In order to watch a meeting video, you first have to be using a Windows system. It won’t work on Apple systems. On Windows, you have to download a Microsoft program called Silverlight. But get this; Silverlight is incompatible with Microsoft Edge and Chrome. It does work with Internet Explorer. Thus, to watch a meeting online, most people have to use two separate browsers.

Understandably, members of the public may not comprehend these complications or refuse to jump through all those hoops, and several have complained to Heckman.

Barron began delivering an explanation, but Heckman cut him short.

“Not everybody still has Commodore computers,” he complained. “It’s not for you to explain how they [IT] can’t do things. It’s for them to explain how they’re going to get the thing fixed so people can watch this stuff. I don’t need the Google-dee-doc about the whole Bill Gates discussion. Fix the thing so somebody can go on a computer and watch it. No more excuses.”

In other business, Executive Lamont McClure told council that the county’s jail and 911 departments are now nearly fully staffed. This reduces the need for mandated overtime. He also noted that Teladoc, a mobile app that enables county employees to seek medical care through their phones or online, has saved the county $762,912 over the past 21 months.