Friday, December 11, 2020

Council's Viewing Public Is Unengaged

1/6/2021 Great news!  Our representatives are now using their cameras!  Check their Tuesday business meetings out on RCTV (Channel 21.)  New time:  7 p.m.  

With Covid-19 fatigue setting in, the public viewing Council meetings wants to see their members LIVE - not just circles on a screen. We want to engage but with council members shutting down their cameras they lose us. With present technology like ZOOM there's no excuse for this; and I think all the members are given computers with cameras.  

When I watched a meeting last night Mayor Birney was seldom LIVE.  I saw the Mayor a few times on a split screen with the city lawyer.  (I've never seen a staff member on camera.) 

It was a total turnoff  when the Mayor was speaking for a long time but you couldn't see her because the City camera was way, way far in the back. All you could see were empty red chairs with yellow tape. That was it -  I changed channels.   

Some of the council members are awesome about using their cameras: Jessica Forsythe,Vanessa Kritzer. Jeralee Anderson, V.P. use them every time. Thank you!  Steve Fields is never on. I can't recall Varisha Khan or Tanika Padhye on camera. David Carson was LIVE early on but not lately.

As much as I complain about these logistics the bottom line is our Council is doing an outstanding job! They often have split decisions- demonstrating healthy conversations and debate. They've put in long hours and many nights working on the budget.  I wish I had the stamina to follow them more closely.  

-- Bob Yoder, opinion. 12/11/20

No comments:

Post a Comment

COMMENT HERE - COMMENTS ARE MODERATED