City Council convenes at 7 p.m. tonight (Feb. 9) in a public meeting at City Hall. But citizens who can't attend will later be able to watch video of the meeting on the city's website at ocnj.us.

In an effort at transparent government, Ocean City has long filmed its City Council meetings and aired them on the local public-access television channel. But the new video-on-demand service on the website makes it easier to watch the meetings at any time of day. It also provides access to homes outside Ocean City.

Neither the television broadcasts nor the web video is live. Video is posted to the website within a few days — after the cameraman delivers a DVD of the meetings to the city and employees upload it to the website.

To see City Council videos:

• Visit the "Council Meetings" page (following the "Government" and "City Council" and "Council Meetings" links from ocnj.us).
• Choose a meeting date from the past schedule.
• Scroll past the meeting agenda to see a list of video segments

Video of meetings from Nov. 29, 2011, through Jan. 26, 2012 (the most recent meeting) are now available.