From:
To: City Council
Subject: Agenda Item Number 7: Suspension of Zoom Virtual Format for City Meetings Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 10:45:09 AM
Councilmembers:
I am in favor of discontinuing public comments via Zoom.
Commentors will have to come to the meeting in person, call prior to the meeting or write. This is the way it was prior to the pandemic and it worked well for over a hundred years.
I’m pretty thick skinned after years in public office but I too found the comments I experienced in person at the March 19, 2024 meeting to have a chilling effect on my desire to speak at the meeting that day.
I realize that this won’t prevent unpopular or abhorrent rhetoric (as it shouldn’t), but will force speakers to make their statements in a more transparent manner. The zoom technology makes it too easy to hide and obfuscate, the opposite of transparency.
Thanks,
Howard Levy
Sebastopol