It seems like all facets of life are operating under strange circumstances.
The Highlands Board of Commissioners meeting on Thursday night was no exception. The meeting was the first ever held via the Zoom online meeting platform.
For those who might not be familiar with how online meetings work, in a nutshell each user logs into the host website and then enters the meeting ID number provided by the host. At that point, all parties can see and hear each other, presuming they have a web camera and/or a microphone.
At the beginning of the meeting, Highlands Information Technology Director Matt Shuler turned off the microphones of those who joined the meeting. He then unmuted the board members, mayor Patrick Taylor and town manager Josh Ward. As the meeting went on, Shuler was able to allow community members to join the conversation as necessary.
With the exception of some low-quality video, which was a product of each individual participants device being different (IE desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.), and some instances of scrambled audio when multiple people attempted to talk at the same time, the meeting was carried out successfully.
The online meeting was brought to fruition by the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. The board cancelled its regularly scheduled March meeting and went online for April. During the current state of emergency related to COVID-19 boards are allowed to conduct public business during non-traditional open public meetings.
While the online meeting accomplished the goals of the board, it was mayor Patrick Taylor who summed up the event best. As he was thanking everyone for their patience and willingness to try the new meeting platform, Taylor said what everyone watching was likely thinking.
“I think this meeting went as well as we could have expected,” Taylor said. “But let’s hope that we can get back to meeting in person, at our normal location, sooner rather than later.”
In strange times, with clear extenuating circumstances, alternate meeting formats may be deemed acceptable but they will never replace public meetings where the government is accountable to the governed.