In a unanimous vote Tuesday, Granite Shoals city council members quashed any future citizen off-premises participation in city council meetings by ending their Zoom participation.
Citizens will still be able to watch the council livestream meetings but won’t be able to comment or ask questions unless they attend the meeting in person.
“I think that it’s time that we let Zoom go,” said Council Member Catherine Bell. “I believe that people can come here (to the council chamber). We do.”
She pointed out that City Secretary Dawn Wright uploads the video recording of each meeting the day after the meeting, giving residents the chance to review happenings.
The Zoom program became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2021-2022 because it allowed agencies to conduct meetings online instead of in person. The program costs the city $650 a year, the staff said.
Council members cited poor attendance as one reason for cutting the program, and in fact only one non-media citizen was at the meeting via Zoom. That was Janet Svorabek, who protested without effect that Zoom was her only chance to be a part of the activity.
“If I would like to participate, this is my only way to do so, other than sending all the emails that you know I send,” she said. “So that’s just my my concern about this. I’m not quite sure that there has been much disruption with Zoom or whatever, but I personally cannot physically go to the meetings.”
Mayor Ron Munos pointed out that the city actually doesn’t benefit from using Zoom. In fact, he said, livestreaming council meetings would ben- efit citizens who want to track agenda items.
“So here people are sitting watching a three-hour meeting,” he said. “They could look at it tomorrow, and fast forward through 15 agenda items to get to the one that you want, and save everybody a whole lot of time. So having it on the recording, where you can fast forward it at your leisure and go back to it. It’s actually better than watching it live on Zoom, in my opinion.”
