BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council discussed the possibility of making its meetings virtual, but it made no decision at last week’s meeting.

City Manager Paul Briseno said the subject was raised due to COVID-19 and the fact that the city staff and boards have transitioned to as many virtual meetings as possible.

“This was done to reduce the risk to staff and volunteers,” he said.

All city council meetings are conducted face-to-face, with options for written submissions and virtual comments, he said. The state has allowed the use of virtual meetings this year to deal with the pandemic.

He laid out the different ways the council could proceed: 

• Continue meetings face-to-face with the public, and councilors, staff or the public can participate virtually if desired;

• Go all virtual with everyone participating virtually;

• Combination with the council and staff face-to-face, and the public participating virtually;

• Combination with the staff face-to-face, and the council and public participating virtually.

Briseno said the council could consider those options or propose another way.

Councilor Nick Wendell said he was interested in going virtual.

“I think we’ve had some challenges this fall in terms of folks in the chambers complying with our mask mandate and when it’s appropriate to enforce that mask mandate,” Wendell said, acknowledging there are exemptions in the mandate which do allow some people to not wear masks.

The councilors sitting on the dias have distance from the public “who are unable to wear masks or unwilling to wear masks, but I do worry about our staff who are forced to be here week after week and particular in meetings when the council chambers are full and there are a number of folks who are not masked,” Wendell said. 

He was willing to go with the option staff was comfortable with to protect themselves. Wendell said they have worked out a lot of the glitches with technology over the past several months, so they are in a better position to project the public transparency and access necessary.

His primary concern was that the staff not continue to be put into “high-risk environments outside of their control.”

If the council did decide to move to all virtual, at what point would they revisit the plan, and how would they handle meetings they suspected would be well attended due to the subject matter, Wendell asked.

Public participation

“First, the law does require us still to have a place where people can view the meeting” and make comments, Briseno said, adding that could mean people writing in, or a hot mic for verbal comments. 

Right now, with the mix of councilors physically present and some calling in, hearing comments can be difficult with the different technologies involved, but if they were all on the same platform, “it seems to work out a little bit better,” Briseno said.

City Attorney Steve Britzman said they would need to make clear if going virtual was on a meeting-by-meeting basis or if it was for several meetings at a stretch.

“Allowing the public to fully participate by listening and commenting could be at a central location” for those who don’t have a connection at home, Britzman said. 

Councilor Patty Bacon asked if they go to a virtual format, will it be audio only, or if the city has the ability to have all councilors video-conferenced in to the virtual meeting. While she doesn’t like having staff exposed in chambers, she felt the public should be able to actually see the council making decisions.

“If the community doesn’t feel that they can see the council having their conversations and making their decisions, I don’t think that will play well,” she said.

Briseno said they did have the capability and had done some of those types of things in the past, “we just have to make sure the format is known by all council members.”

Councilor Leah Brink asked what options were available for people who don’t have the connectivity to join a virtual meeting.

Briseno said the city could have a hotline at the City and County Government Center for those who wanted to make comments traditionally. There’s a phone number for folks to call to participate in the meetings, too.

Britzman said the city wants full transparency and full public participation, especially in COVID times, and sets “the standard fairly high in terms of public participation.” He said they need to provide one or more public places for people to participate in the meeting, “and that’s what our open meeting law would contemplate.”

Staff safety

Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne said if the city could provide those options, she would be supportive of going to a virtual setting, but she wanted to know how many staff members would be needed to run options such as a hot mic.

Staff from IT would still be in the chambers to run the audio/video equipment, but they would be in a separate room, away from the public, Briseno said.

Jacob Meshke, assistant city manager, said one option was to utilize the large screen on the wall behind the council and have each councilor featured on that screen if they were participating remotely. They might be able to do a webcam shot of people speaking at the podium, too.

Councilor Joey Collins said he had been thinking it was OK for the councilors to come to the chambers as they had been, “until Nick brought up the safety of the staff; that does bother me. So I’d be OK with going virtual.”

Brink said she understood the goals but felt virtual meetings might not be a good option long-term. If the council decided to go virtual, she wanted it to be “as temporary as possible. … I think the public does have a right to see us live.”

Councilor Ope Niemeyer said he was comfortable with the situation as it was, since councilors have the option of attending the meetings in person or participating virtually. 

“It takes the human touch out of it if we don’t have people here in the building,” he said.

They already limit how many people are in the room and have the option of putting overflow in a separate room where they can still participate in the proceedings, he said.

“I hope that the staff hasn’t felt that they’ve been unsafe,” Niemeyer said. “But … since we are elected officials (and) it is a public meeting, I think people that watch us online and our live meetings, are going to lose some of the effect of good government. I guess I would be real tentative doing all virtual.”

Tilton Byrne said she’s been very thankful that the councilors have had the option of joining virtually, “but I’m not certain that members of the public and our staff have had that same opportunity.” She would be in favor of virtual meetings to provide a space for the public who don’t feel comfortable coming into the chambers and to protect staff from exposure. 

“I would really urge us to find a way to provide that kind of opportunity to the public and staff, as well,” she said.

Niemeyer said they should add more technology to what they already use, including being able to show the councilors who are calling in on the big screen.

“It’s so much more personable if you were able to tell me right in front of me than to listen to you on a microphone,” he said.

These are great ideas, especially staff having the option to go virtual, Briseno said.

“The only concern I have is those meetings that are going to be a little contentious,” he said, adding he’s had staff and police direct the public as they entered the chambers “because we were so overwhelmed with people.”

“When we do have those large meetings, that’s when it gets a little bit tougher to have everyone virtual,” Briseno said.

No change yet

Wendell summed up what he’d heard at the meeting.

“If I’m reading the mood, we’re really not at a place yet where we’d be ready to make the decision and move virtual,” he said.

“I did think there was real value in having a public conversation around it,” Wendell said.

If COVID cases escalate, he didn’t want the council to be in a position where they had to move into virtual mode quickly, leaving the public feeling like there had been no conversation or deliberation about it, he said.

At least the council has now publicly discussed going virtual and what it might look like, he said.

“I know staff’s already put a ton of energy into what an all-virtual format would look like,” Wendell said.

“I think this is a helpful conversation for the public, even if we don’t make this move just yet,” Wendell said.

Bacon agreed that the current format is working “if the staff feels safe,” but still wanted to add the video to the big screen of those calling in so everyone can see who’s talking since she anticipated at least some of the councilors attending remotely until the pandemic is over. 

Mayor Keith Corbett suggested councilors submit ideas and thoughts to Briseno so the staff can put together a plan for the council to consider and discuss in the future.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.