Board of Aldermen 08-09-2022 Page 10
to conduct the business of the city to be dealing with people who are acting out, or unfamiliar with technology, and all that
type of stuff. We have different roles for reasons.
| think if we were really going to do this right, we would need somebody who’s a dedicated moderator. To be blunt, we
haven't even managed to fill our second aldermanic assistant position in several years. Other than asking other
departments to do it like the videographers, | don’t think it’s fair for us as Aldermen to say well we want the public to have
a privilege. We’re not going to pay for it. We don’t know who can do it. We’re just going to expect it to continue. | don’t
think it’s realistic or sustainable. While | do think that Zoom has played a crucial role in managing the pandemic, | also
take note of the fact that a lot of the speakers who are currently defending its use were pretty opposed to us meeting via
Zoom and made the point that we needed to face the public and be here doing the city’s business. | think that does
extend to the public as well. It’s an opportunity and it’s impactful for the public to come and speak in person. | think we’ve
lost sight of that in a lot of ways where it’s easier to access as a click of a button. | think some people who may have
come out and really engaged in issues and maybe watched the whole meeting don’t have to now because they can just
turn it on when it’s their time to speak.
| don’t agree that it disenfranchises more people that not. | don’t think that we have adequate moderation mechanisms in
place right now. I’m not impressed by the public’s level of participation in some select cases but | don’t think this is a
decision that was made because of the people who are abusing it. | think it’s a feasibility decision and | don’t think Lord
Wilshire is alone in her belief that this is something that if we’re going to do it, we really need to put a lot more effort and
time into assembling the infrastructure for it and making sure it works. | say that out of respect for the videographers who
are trying to do it, the Aldermen who are trying to operate it and meetings at the same time, and the public who often want
to be heard but it’s much easier for someone to take up their time and to espouse their political beliefs and opinions if they
don’t even have to come down here to do it.
So | think we had a pretty good system for 100 plus years where the public could make comments in person and
governance was conducted in person. | would like to reserve the right to re-engage it for the public if COVID numbers go
up again and we have an outbreak of whatever else shows up in the next couple of years. | think if we’re going to
continue doing it for meetings, it should only be available to Aldermen or more importantly to city staff. If they’re making
presentations, or they can’t come to attend the meeting, or it would be cost prohibitive, | want to save the taxpayers
money by letting them do it remotely. | think the presentations come across more smoothly to the public when they do.
Additionally, | would also like to say that when we talk about access to meetings, there’s not very good education even
amongst board members as to how we can access meetings. The public does have access through public access. The
public has live access through the website. So you can stream it live. I’ve been on this Board where Aldermen pre-
COVID saw something on TV and then came bolting down to participate because they were concerned about what we
were doing or what we were saying. That’s been around for along time. You can go to CTV on the city’s website and
watch these proceedings live. If you do feel like you want to make public comment, you can watch it live and then come
down at the end. So | don’t think the public is having any rights infringed by having Zoom removed. | think it behooves us
to look at this a little bit more carefully and make sure that if we are going to offer it, we are moderating it because we
don’t have any way to control language. We don’t really have a way to control what people are doing on the screen. We
couldn’t even control what people names were as Alderman O’Brien can attest to and we aren't able to confirm that the
people speaking are even who they say they are who where they say they are, which are some things we can do at least
here in person. Thank you.
Alderman Jette
Thank you Madam President. Before tonight’s meeting, | was hoping to get a jump here and move that this be referred to
the Personnel and Administrative Affairs Committee where a full discussion could be had. Since I’m the sixth speaker, it
sounds like we’re going to like or not, we’re doing it tonight.
| think there are a lot of questions. A lot of good questions that have been raised. | don’t think we really have the
answers. The technical aspects of running a Zoom meeting — | experience a lot of Zoom meetings and | don’t run into the
same problems that we run into here. | don’t pretend to be a technical expert by any means whatsoever. So | don’t know
why these other groups that | work with are able to conduct Zoom meetings apparently without much difficulty and why we
have so much problem. | don’t know what the answer to that is. | was hoping that the committee could have some of the
people with that type of expertise come and offer their suggestions. | know I’m on the Cable TV Advisory Board and there
are members on that board who are very technically proficient who might be able to offer us some guidance here.
I’m in favor of giving the public the opportunity to participate and | think the introduction of Zoom kind of came to us as a
result of the COVID problem. For me, it taught me that we could allow much more access by — I’m thinking of the public
yes but also Aldermen who couldn’t come for whatever reasons. I’m also thinking about like in our committees. We often
