To Zoom or Not to Zoom…

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Senior Staff Writer

HARRISON – The Feb. 19 BOC meeting finished up with a New Business discussion of Zoom meeting coverage. It was queried whether there had been anyone signed in on Zoom other than county employees, and it was noted that four of the 10 attending were not county employees. District 8 Commissioner George Gilmore [who had previously advocated for discontinuing Zoom coverage, saying that people on Zoom couldn’t get “the flavor of the meeting” if not in the room] voiced concern over the expense to the county of providing the meetings via Zoom. He also contended that meetings are primarily only watched by employees who, if they had business with the Board, could attend and deal with commissioners personally.

Commissioner David Hoefling-District 5 noted that people in his district have always been very happy to have the option to attend via the BOC meetings.

“Several of the townships are quite a distance away from the county seat, and it’s often difficult for them to get her in order to see what’s going on, and they really appreciate it.”

Commissioner Jacob Gross-District 3 noted having had people approach him to ask why after the COVID-19 requirements had ended after 2022, that none of the current meetings were available on the county’s website.

“Even though we do have Zoom and have an OWL system that was installed to be able to record meetings – that they’re not available,” Gross said. “So, outside of this time where it’s in the middle of the work day and difficult for people to get out and be able to come here to see what’s going on – that are interested in what we’re doing here, the tax money and decisions that we’re making. I think it would be a good idea, not just to continue Zoom, but also to take the recordings from the Zoom and continue to post them online for people that aren’t able to make it during this time – to be able to have access to see what we’re doing and if they have interest in what’s going on at the county level. I’ve had plenty of constituents that would like to know first hand without just with my report to them at our meetings on what’s going on and be able to form their own opinions about what’s going on or be able to hear the discussion going on around it and have some context to the decisions that we make.”

Commissioner Jack Kleinhardt-District 6 suggested it might time to reopen the discussion about having a night meeting.

Gross agreed that it would be good to have a discussion at the Committee of the Whole about routes that could be taken to have more exposure of what’s done on the Board to the public. He further questioned whether the low attendance on Zoom is due to lack of interest or lack of public knowledge that the meeting coverage is available.

“If they’re wanting to take the time to watch the video, I think it would be great for us to provide that video for them to watch,” Gross said. “I think spreading the word at our meetings about Zoom might help participation from all over the county to be able to have access to see what we’re doing here.”

Commissioner Dale Majewski-District 2 responded to Gilmore’s conjecture that county employees are watching meetings and in-so-doing were not doing their work.

“I think the employees are listening to our meetings, rather than being focused right in, and they’re doing their job,” Majewski said. “I don’t think they’re pulling away two hours to watch our meeting. I think they might be just listening to it while they’re doing their work.” He then noted that night meetings would be tough for him to attend.

It was agreed that the Zoom question as well as evening meetings discussion would be placed on the March 5 Committee of the Whole agenda.