VIDEO FEED BRINGS TESTIMONY TO COUNCIL.

Byline: Dan Laidman Staff Writer

Richard Ricci approached a City Council candidate three years ago with a bold idea: The Chatsworth man wanted the council to allow residents like him to testify at meetings without having to slog through hours of traffic to travel downtown.

Ricci's suggestion came to fruition Wednesday as the City Council unanimously approved a plan to allow citizens to testify by videoconference from remote locations.

Ricci was one of the first to testify from afar, via a video feed from a city building in Van Nuys.

``Here in the Valley, we're a long way from City Hall,'' Ricci told the council with his visage projected above them on a monitor, a Valley vista spread out behind him. ``I think this technology will help that.''

Greig Smith, the councilman Ricci approached and the one who introduced the motion, said Los Angeles is the first large city to adopt such a plan.

``If it works here in L.A. I think it will be replicated all over the country,'' Smith said.

Paul Taylor - chief strategy officer for the Center for Digital Government, a research and advisory institute specializing in government information technology based near Sacramento - could not confirm that Los Angeles is the first city to have such a policy, but he said it was a positive step.

``The center has advocated such uses of technology that extend city halls and state legislatures into the homes of the people that government serve,'' Taylor wrote in an e-mail.

Among the other Valley figures who spoke via videoconference in favor of the new policy were Martin Cooper, chairman of the Valley Industry Commerce Association, Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Association, and Joe Vitti, president of Valley Vote.

Some council members questioned the implications of the technology for the city's compliance with state open meetings laws, but officials said the plan had been thoroughly vetted by the City Attorney's Office.

Meeting notices will be posted at remote videoconference sites, including the Van Nuys and San Pedro city halls, officials said. A city report estimated the plan could generate $50,000 in equipment costs, but no additional staff costs.

Dan Laidman, [phone]

dan.laidman(at)dailynews.com