Dear Council,
It seems impera�ve that council mee�ngs stay hybrid for the sake of our town. Our wonderful litle town is not like any other in the county so it’s not appropriate to compare. Basically, many people are unable to atend council mee�ngs in person and would be cut out of the conversa�on.
It has been informa�ve for me to atend zoom council mee�ngs in the last year or so. While on zoom mee�ngs, I have been able to listen to lawyers, accountants, and reports from consultants whose �me must be cos�ng the city significantly less because they are not having to drive to the mee�ngs.
Most importantly, it is important to maintain democracy. It is important for anyone who has a comment to be able to speak to the council and give their opinion, whether they are able to physically be at the mee�ng or not.
With respect to the last mee�ng and the 3 zoom bombers, while some may say true democracy is listening to everyone’s comment, what they said is no more repulsive than the woman at the previous mee�ng spou�ng her abhorrent comment “from the river to the sea” and no council member atemp�ng to talk over her. She was allowed her full two minutes while advoca�ng for erasing the State of Israel and its people.
There are plenty of measures that are easy to implement and effec�vely weed out troublemakers and headaches.
The botom line for me is, anyone on the council vo�ng to end hybrid mee�ngs is atemp�ng to limit our rights as ci�zens and the transparency our town needs, now more than ever, with the financial fiasco our last council got us into.