There are few options for the public to participate in - or even listen to - meetings at Richmond City Hall with physical distancing orders and the ability to bar them from attending in place.
Council passed a motion on Monday that gives the discretion to the mayor or committee chair to bar the public from attending meetings in person during the COVID-19 emergency.
However, to obtain a recording of a committee meeting, a freedom-of-information request has to be submitted to the city. (Council meetings are livestreamed online.)
In fact, more than a year ago, a motion by Coun. Kelly Greene to have audio recordings of committee meetings available online was referred to staff, but it has yet to come back to council.
“If that had been done (by now), we’d be in a much better place,” Greene told the Richmond News, adding she’d like the city to work harder to make democracy work.
With the public being told to stay home except when absolutely necessary because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greene also pushed to have more accommodations – like video or phone conferencing - for the public who want to speak on an agenda item, but this was not supported by the majority of council.
The public will be able to submit written comments on topics on the agenda if they don’t attend, but Greene said this could be problematic for people with learning or physical disabilities or seniors who speak English but don’t write it.
“In a crisis, marginalized people are marginalized even more,” Greene said.
Furthermore, she said people shouldn’t be coming into city hall during a pandemic, but they should be allowed a variety of ways to take part.
“We should be facilitating people participating in democracy in different ways,” she said.
The referral to have other accommodations was only supported by Greene, Couns. Chak Au and Michael Wolfe.
City council is also scaling back the number of public meetings it’s holding, at least until the end of May.
Except for a planning committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, all standing committee meetings, except GP meetings (usually held twice a month) and finance committee meetings, will be cancelled.
Regular council meetings and public hearings will continue as scheduled.
For all the latest COVID-19 news, click here.
