2014-01-27 Study Session video-audio teleconferencing

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Mr. Kraft stated that what he is suggesting is that Council amend its rules to state that members who wish to participate by videoconference will only be permitted to do so once a physical quorum has been established. Ms. Forster stated that while that would be a decision that Council has to make the statute permits you to utilize a member who is present by videoconference to establish a quorum. Mr. Kraft stated that if you took this statute to the extreme there is a possibility that you could have four members present by videoconference and no members who are physically in the room. That is something that he does not want to happen. He stated that you could also get into issues where someone calls a meeting, it’s posted, but nobody knows about it. Mr. Kraft stated that Council needs to think about the fact that there are some pretty grey areas in this law, and even the commentators from the MML have said that it was not a particularly well-thought-out statute. So even though it is unlikely that all seven members will be absent, ten years from now when everybody’s walking around with laptops on their wrist, this rule will be in place Mr. Crow stated that even though he will agree that he is not sure that the law was necessarily well thought out, he does believe that it was designed for a very specific purpose. And even if you had a notice for a meeting and it generated four people on laptops: notice was given and it would not mean that citizens could be in this room with Joyce and still be able to participate. Mr. Crow stated that he did not know why anyone would think that the implementation of this statute is anything to go to the mat on, because at the end of the day he does not think that anyone would ever use it that often. Mr. Sharpe said that the only difficulty he has with not implementing a rule to require that four members be physically present for a quorum is the fact that the statute opens the door for members to exercise their option to attend by videoconference rather than in person to discuss issues that they deem as problematic. Mr. Kraft stated that if your quorum is made up of three physical members and one member who is attending via videoconference and that member lost their connection, then you would no longer have a quorum and the meeting would have to be adjourned. Mayor Welsch stated that since this is law and it cannot be banned by Council she believes that further discussions should be focused on how this will impact residents and how effective is a member’s ability to take part in a meeting to the audience. She stated that when she had attended the School Board meeting where Senator Chappelle-Nadal was brought in by videoconference it really was not easy for anyone to communicate with her, nor was it easy for her to communicate with the audience. Mayor Welsch stated that the setup that was used placed the Senator up on the podium, but she could not see the whole room and the audience was unable to see and hear her. So she hopes that Council will begin to talk about how this can best be implemented, because in her opinion residents have the right to see, hear and talk with Councilmembers after the meetings. Ms. Carr stated that she would also like to see a physical quorum because it guarantees that the continuation of a meeting would not be in jeopardy if a video connection is lost. She stated that she had asked the Senator how receptive her constituents had been to this new concept, wherein she stated that if in the end they are unhappy with the way this is being handled they have the right not to reelect me. Ms. Carr stated that the Mayor is right, it is the law and therefore Council should make an effort to have this available. She stated that this will evolve over time to wristwatch laptops and other things, but she does not want to write the law for something that she really cannot anticipate.