By Molly McRoberts, Potter County News
I think our community meetings are interesting, but they can be a lot of work to attend. Often they are on a Monday or Tuesday, which is time I need to meet my press deadline. I have been fortunate to have good people on the boards over the years who were willing to record the meetings for me to make sure I could, in turn, share the happenings with our readers.
But then the coronavirus came along.
I hesitate to say there is anything good about the pandemic, but if there is a sliver of a silver lining, it might be that the meetings are now easier to attend. In a way, it’s almost like they come to me. And to you. And anyone else interested, which as it turns out, includes a lot of people.
In order to keep safe, many groups implemented the use of a computer program called Zoom to hold meetings. By clicking a link on the school’s website, it was almost like I was right there in the room with the 19 of us attending.
Last week I was at the city council meeting, along with more than 40 people. This shows our community leaders that people are interested in what is happening with our town boards, and they want to attend the meetings.
The county has not signed on to the program yet, but we are ever hopeful. One of the reasons given to not do so was that they can’t assume everyone has access to a computer. I would counter that with not everyone can make the climb to the third floor of the courthouse.
And most people have a cell phone, which has more computing power than my first several PCs. It also seems counter-productive to close the courthouse to protect staff and patrons, but open it up for public meetings during a pandemic. Especially when we know it doesn’t have to be that way, and the city and school are conducting business safely, with more people than usual in attendance.
Or is that why? Nah. It couldn’t be that they don’t want people to attend their meetings, could it?
In their defense, they did try to do a conference call. We had a tough time connecting back to 1994, but ... even though it was hard to hear and the line sometimes disconnected, it seemed a better idea than risking illness ... or breathless (it’s a long hike up to the third floor!).
We’re all learning how to stay in touch from a safe distance, and using technology is the best answer. The same program has been used by everyone from teachers to set up classroom meetings, to groups of friends getting together for virtual happy hour. And even though it is an easy way to attend a meeting, and they seem to move along efficiently, the best part is we don’t have to go out into the night to be part of it.
That’s not entirely true. The really best part is we can attend the meeting in our pajamas, which I’m guessing many of us did. Many of us other than the board member who attended the meeting from the cab of his tractor. How great an example of multitasking is that during spring planting?!
For those who are including us in Zoom meetings, thank you. For those who haven’t yet, please consider it. For anyone who has wanted to attend a meeting and hasn’t, try linking in. It’s easy and informative. And you don’t have to dress up or leave the house (or tractor)!
Molly McRoberts is managing editor of the Potter County News in Gettysburg. This editorial appeared in the May 14 edition of the PCN.
Editor’s Addendum:
When I read Molly’s column I thought it was very appropriate to reprint it in my newspaper as well.
Locally, both our City and our County Commission have been very good about making these public meetings available via the internet in this COVID-19 world.
Our school has started broadcasting their meetings on the Alliance Public Access channel, and although I think this is a good idea that they should continue, I frankly don’t think they’re doing enough.
Board President Shannon Nordstrom has commented many times in the past that he feels that a school board meeting is a “Meeting in Public, not a Public Meeting.”
To be as bluntly honest as I can, I find that opinion to be onerous and dangerously autocratic. School board positions are elected positions and school board meetings are public meetings that anyone should be able to attend or speak at. Period. The School Board and its members serve the people of the district, first and foremost as their sacred public trust. Anything else flies in the face of what the founding fathers built for our great nation.
Currently, the school board is hosting its meetings via Zoom, but the call is closed. No one, aside from the people who get an invitation, can join it. I have been attending meetings by going to the school building and watching the live broadcast as it happens to report on it for the paper and I’m happy they allow me to at least do that, though I might much prefer to join the teleconference.
I asked Supt. Guy Johnson over the phone as to why I could not, and why this was the case. I pointed out, reasonably I think, that the City, as an example, is already making these accommodations for anyone to join/observe. I asked why this was not the case for the school. He said that he’d been advised by the school’s legal counsel that this was the practice they should implement, it was what he was going to continue to do and that he frankly did not care what practices the City of Garretson was using to conduct their meetings. I counter that you should care, and very much. I am also of the opinion that the school should perhaps hire a new legal advisor.
I have no personal animosity to either Mr. Johnson, or Mr. Nordstrom. In fact, I can say that I quite like both men in question. However, I wish to point out that this practice is not conducive to the goals of district transparency you have both touted at previous meetings I have attended. Though it may be within the bounds of legality, especially considering these unprecedented times we live in, it does not measure up to the spirit of the law as written, nor the American principles of freedom, free speech and free and fair discourse I know we all hold sacred.
-Garrick Moritz, Garretson Gazette
