Board of Aldermen 08-09-2022 Page 9
mails. We just don’t necessarily respond if it’s not our constituent. That does not mean that we don’t hear. That does not
mean that we don’t see just because we haven't pressed the send by sending a message. | just feel that if | responded to
every single e-mail message whether it’s my constituent or not, | wouldn’t get any work done. | would just be responding
to e-mails because we do get quite a bit.
As Alderman O’Brien pointed out, New Hampshire voted against it. Well it wasn’t so much we voted against it, we were
told no. We were told by the Speaker of the House that that would not be happening and they cut off public comment.
You were there and that was how you spoke.
My biggest issue is the glitching. We don’t have control. If we mute everybody because someone is misbehaving, we
mute everybody. That means that the employees that are trying to give presentations can’t give the presentations and
that creates its own headache. I’m not going to be popular amongst my fellow colleagues here because | don’t believe
the Aldermen should be Zooming in. In the past, we had two phone lines that we could call and | think that’s what we
should be going back to. | know and I’m saying this knowing that the month of September I’m going to be having two
surgeries and there’s a good chance that because of quarantining and being laid up, that would mean | would have to call
in if | wanted to be able to participate. I’m not just doing this because I’m here at every meeting. This will affect me as
well. So | want to put that out on the table.
| think it was mentioned that there’s been bad behavior. | think that it was mentioned about the profanity. | can tell you |
remember the day | sat here watching Zoom on my screen and was appalled by a man who walked in front of the camera
totally nude, took his baby from his wife, and sat there very pleasantly, happily. We've had people who have put up vulgar
signs and so on. | hate to punish the whole because of the few but we have no way of shutting them down unless we shut
all of Zoom down. Until we can really get a handle on that technology, | think it’s time for Zoom to go by the wayside. |
think that many of the people that speak here as one from the chamber did speak was almost identical to an e-mail that
we received. Again, | read them all. There’s not one that goes by. | may not respond to all of them but | do read them all.
Thank you for letting me speak Madam President.
Alderman Moran
Thank you Madam President. Pretty split on this issue. | don’t Know how I’m going to vote yet. | really want to listen to
the debate from everyone else. My concerns are it does kind of disenfranchise folks that have access to this other than
local access TV. For one, my family we don’t have cable. We stream. So the only access that we have is to go onto
Zoom and watch. Then again, my 7 year old and my 5 old also got to hear the “C” word for the first time by a member of
the public during a Finance Committee because my kids were watching me on the Finance Committee. Mr. Mayor | think
you were that night. So it does bring up a concern of mine for the public interfering in my ability to parent, which | find
distasteful. I’m an elected official. My kids are not. I’m just trying to raise civically minded children.
Again, this allows us the opportunity to still soeak and have people in the community bring very coherent things to us. My
personal opinion is the folks that do become vulgar, and use belittling language, and hold up signs, and what not, they're
missing something in their lives. I’m not going to go on about my credentials in mental health or anything, but they’re
missing something. So on this in totality, I’m very split. I think the elderly need access. | think people who can’t get here
and have child care issues should be able elect to Zoom. Maybe it is time for a pause to see what Lord Wilshire — one of
our most popular politicians in the entire city can get control over Zoom to allow for civil engagement through all forms of
access to the Board. | really want to hear more from everyone else. | think it’s very important that we have citizens
engaged. A few bad apples shouldn’t ruin the entire bunch. | think there can be a pause to kind of figure out how to we
engage and have the Clerk or someone have the ability to intervene so we don’t have to have a parental advisory posted
on local access.
On top of that, | know | travel a lot. Alderman Sullivan travels a lot, Alderman Comeau and I’m opening another mental
health clinic in the west coast next year. | was planning on joining some days on Zoom. At the end of the day if the
constituents can’t join, | don’t want to join. | don’t think our employees or Aldermen should have a special privilege over
citizens. That’s all | have.
Alderman Lopez
So | agree with some of what was said by my colleagues. With regards to moderating, | don’t think we have the
infrastructure set up. While it was pointed out that $11,000 is the current impact of it, the current impact is not entirely
adequate and it’s being performed by people who are videographers and it’s not fair to ask them to also be Facebook
moderators. It’s not realistic to expect the public to fully moderate themselves as evidenced by some of the stuff that
we've seen. It falls automatically to the Chairs of the different committees and their Vice-Chairs. We try to do our best but
we weren't elected for that either. | wasn’t elected for my live streaming credentials. It's very problematic and distracting
