Dissatisfied with the way public input at Stevensville Town Council meetings has been handled or mishandled, depending on your point of view, over two dozen people, many carrying signs, gathered outside Stevensville’s Town Hall last Thursday as a Zoom meeting over the internet was being conducted by Mayor Brandon Dewey from his home.
Although Dewey responded to criticism of the initial town meetings held on the Zoom platform by adding the option for members of the public to phone in and give real time comment, many people feel that being excluded from attending meetings in person handicaps their ability to participate in the decision-making process.
While public comment is being accepted over the phone under the new format, written comment submitted during the meeting may not necessarily be acknowledged at the time but will be included in the official minutes of the meeting when they are adopted. According to Mayor Dewey, after a lot of consultation it was determined that it was not necessary to read the written comment into the record aloud at the meeting so long as it was included in the final record of the meeting and the council members had time to read it before making their decision.
One of the protesters outside town hall the other evening, Jim Kalkofen, said he was “not real thrilled with the Mayor’s style of meetings lately.”
“For how many years here in Stevensville have public comments been heard at meetings?” he asked. Kalkofen is head of a homeowners association that is contesting a recently proposed subdivision adjacent to the one he lives in. He said the mayor’s new process leaves him anxious that the public may not be able to have their voices heard in that process. He said that he wasn’t sure he could communicate in an effective manner if restricted to talking over the phone. He said he needs eye contact and a visual presence to communicate well and would probably feel handicapped in delivering his message over the phone, especially if they should ask him a question.
“The bottom line for us is, if you are going to have this style of meeting, how many important recommendations and comments are being missed in the process?” he asked indirectly, referring to the letter that 20 business owners submitted at a previous meeting that was not disclosed or discussed at the meeting and when the business owners tried to make public comment they were denied because one of them blurted out a profanity.
“We are just afraid that our voices are not going to be heard,” he said.
Mayor Dewey said in a phone interview, “I understand everyone’s frustration for sure. We are in an impossible situation in the virtual meetings where no matter what decision we make we stand to alienate or upset some faction of the community.”
Dewey said that the safety of the community and the town staff and the council members was of paramount importance and that he was consulting with lawyers and other experts on government affairs, taking advice from the government health agencies, consulting with town staff and with the council members over the issue as well as listening to the public.
He said the discussions with the town council members are emblematic of the problems that the community has with these issues. Half object to the use of Zoom meetings and half express concerns for the town staff and others who must attend these meetings and insist that they will only attend virtually if it cannot be assured that they and the staff are protected. He said even his board chairpersons were hesitant to give any recommendation in the face of such a divided issue.
“My hope would be that we will get to a place where we can have in-person meetings sooner rather than later,” he said, maybe by the September 10 meeting.
Dewey said that the town tried to hold in-person meetings but that it was unsuccessful because too many people were adamantly opposed to following those types of rules. Dewey said it was such an emotional issue that part of the rationale to go to virtual meetings was meant to avoid the types of encounters that were occurring where social distancing and masking were being required. He said they probably fell short on the enforcement side and had trouble keeping the line and it made staff and others uncomfortable about attending the meetings.
“At the time, we just felt that enforcement was going to precipitate an even more difficult situation. It is not out of the question that we are going to consider this again, it’s just going to take us some time to get there. It is not something that we can implement overnight.”
“My hope is that on September 10 at our next scheduled council meeting, we can get back to in-person meetings even if it requires social distancing and masking,” said Dewey.
He said the technical limitation for hosting a virtual meeting which people could also attend in-person was complicated and demanding. He said other than town hall, the North Valley Public Library community room was usable and could double the number of people that could be accommodated. He said moving to any larger venue such as a gym or something like that would present technical difficulties that they may not be able to meet at this time due to lack of resources.
“This is not a done deal,” said Dewey. “We are going to continue working on this issue and make it right. I don’t think COVID-19 is going away anytime soon and so we have to figure out a way to move forward and be adaptable.”