$13.50 to listen to a Pasadena public meeting?

I just requested an audio copy of a council meeting that was called last night to hear about the city's mid-year budget situation, and was quoted the price of $13.50. Now, I think I understand why the city failed to videotape it and put it online- it was originally scheduled to be a financial commission meeting, and the council decided to convene and maybe didn't want to pay for the video crew to be there, etc., etc.

However, I am pretty shocked at the price to view this meeting. Not only that I am being given a cassette tape to listen to. I had to get off the phone and call around the newsroom to see if we even have a tape player here (we do, fortunately).

As a comparison, when I covered the city of Covina and could not make a meeting, they were always able to provide a CD with an audio file to listen to on my computer for the bargain price of $1.

$13.50 just doesn't feel like the Pasadena Way to me.

UPDATE: I hear from the city that the audio from the meeting and the staff report will be put online before the end of the week. No word on when they plan to update their recording technology and switch to CDs (or, even MP3 files).