From:
To: City Council
Cc: Diana Rich
Subject: Comment re Controlling Zoom Hearing Public Comments Date: Monday, April 1, 2024 5:59:13 AM
Hello Council,
I reside on First Street and only occasionally attend city public hearings in connection with my work. At the outset, I didn’t see the March 19 hearing but I’m so sorry that you and our community were subjected to the type of harassment described in Diana’s e-news email.
Here are my thoughts:
My default preference is to maintain public comment via Zoom but not if doing so creates an unsafe, offensive environment which causes others with legitimate comments, or simply an interest in the legislative process, from participating. As with disruptive college students shouting down visiting speakers with whom they disagree, a member of the public's exercise of their First Amendment rights must be curtailed at the point where it interferes with others’ exercise of their First Amendment rights.
If the only way to avoid an obnoxious minority from interfering with others’s rights, or the orderly conduct of city business, is to shut down Zoom participation, then so be it. Comments can still be made in person or in written form.
From a technical perspective, though, is there not a solution available through the existing technology? Can the clerk not shut off the offending commenter’s Zoom feed and/or kick them out of the hearing altogether? I know the BOS allows public comment only by opening up the platform one person at a time for comment and, presumably, can turn off that person’s mic once they reach the 2-minute mark. They also defer all “open mic” comment unrelated to agenda items to the end of their hearings.
I realize that as a practical/legal perspective, it may be tricky to empower the clerk to turn off a commenter’s mic (i.e., where is the line between heated commentary versus harassment?), but wouldn’t this same dilemma exist if there were no Zoom participation and people were left to make their disruptive comments in person? In either case, either the clerk (or the Mayor?) would need to decide in the moment to shut down the harassing commentary and, if the commenter refused to leave the podium, presumably security would need to escort them away from the microphone and possibly out of the hearing forum. Is there not a Zoom equivalent to achieve that same result online?
Another idea might be to allow oral public comment to be submitted by