This is so unfortunate. This is a real opportunity to increase capacity to have meetings readily accessible to many people in the city who want to know more about city government.The City is squandering a tremendous opportunity to make government more open and accessible than ever before. And, one might argue, not meeting the full spirit of the open meetings laws. Spoiler alert: Attorney General Josh Kaul even says about virtual meetings “When possible, a governmental body may wish to consider recording the meeting and posting it on its website as soon as practicable after the meeting concludes.” I think the City should spend the money needed to properly store and figure out the data storage and fully comply with the records retention requirements and public records laws. Here’s what the city is saying.
EMAIL FROM IT DEPARTMENT
From: Edgerton, Sarah <SEdgerton@cityofmadison.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2020 6:14 PM
To: All Alders <allalders@cityofmadison.com>
Cc: Obeng, Kwasi <KObeng@cityofmadison.com>; Viste, Doran <DViste@cityofmadison.com>
Subject: Recording Zoom Meetings
Dear Alders,
Last Friday, Information Technology sent out an e-mail with telework reminders. Included within this e-mail was the following directive to all staff and users:
“Recording Zoom Meetings. Do not record your Zoom meeting without prior permission from City Attorney’s and Information Technology. New protocols will follow as we develop new policies and process to support Zoom recordings.”
Recording a Zoom meeting is very easy—all the host has to do is click on button. However, these recorded Zoom meetings have presented challenges to the City. These records are very large and will present data storage problems for the City if they continue to be made. In addition, these recordings would be subject to records retention requirements and the public records laws. The City will need policies in place about how to store and catalog these recordings so that the City is in compliance with the law. In the near term, City users should not be recording Zoom meetings without the permission of IT and the City Attorney’s Office. Approval is currently provided for Boards, Commission and Committee meetings that are either Type 1 or Type 2 meetings. While recording neighborhood meetings has been helpful to some Alders, those recordings cannot continue to made at the current time. We ask for your patience as we work through these issues. Please note—this directive is only to prohibit the City’s recording of Zoom meetings. You can still participate in a Zoom meetings that is recorded by an outside user, although you are advised to be aware when a call is being recorded (the call window will clearly indicate that this is the case).
Please feel to reach out to City Attorney Doran Viste or myself with any questions or concerns.
Thank you,
Sarah Edgerton, CIO
(she/her)
Director of Information Technology
City of Madison, WI
sedgerton@cityofmadison.com
www.cityofmadison.com
(608)261-9642
MISSED OPPORTUNITY/THINK CREATIVELY!
I see two issues here.
Neighborhood Meetings
I understand telling staff not to record their staff or routine meetings. I don’t understand telling alders they can’t record their neighborhood meetings. Just last week a neighbor sent this email to my neighborhood group:
I was aware of the planned steering/neighborhood meeting last night (May 7th) about the massive and out of scale North Hancock/East Washington apartment project, however, while I appreciate your alerting of this meeting, I was not at all able to take part of any computer online ZOOM or whatever service this was done on…..no computer ability at that hour of the day or time to sit on a computer and besides, when tuned to City Channel, it was not on…other ZOOM meetings were on but not this one with Capital Neighborhoods….so you shut-out some who would wish and can take part but can’t due to this ZOOM requirement . . . sorry, my boyfriend (soon husband) and I can’t be on a ZOOM with a smart phone or a computer at work where we are not at—especially at that hour of the day, past 7 pm.
Luckily the chair of that committee (not a city committee, but a neighborhood committee) was able to send the 223M file of the 1 hour and 45 minute meeting.
I honestly haven’t watched this one, but its here and available for those who might like to.
The only Alder Neighborhood meetings going on are about development. To the public it feels like projects are being fast tracked for approval while everything else is shut down. The VERY LEAST that can be done is to allow the Alder to record these meetings so others can have a very minimal change to participate. The meeting above happened to be a Neighborhood meeting, not an alder meeting, but it demonstrates my point.
City Committee Meetings
Approval is currently provided for Boards, Commission and Committee meetings that are either Type 1 or Type 2 meetings. So city committees CAN record their meetings. I believe all city committee meetings using the Zoom format should be REQUIRED to be recorded and we (the public) should be able to see everything available to the others in the meeting – including the chat and who is in the meeting. Right now, you can only see people who actually speak, we can’t see the full list of people in the meeting – like you can in person. And we can’t see people having side conversations or trying to get the attention of the chair. I really think the meetings should be required to be recorded and all this information (full screen – not just the person speaking, chat) should be available to the public.
While the open meetings law at the state level doesn’t require public input but the city ordinance does, state law merely requires: “all meetings of all state and local governmental bodies shall be publicly held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public and shall be open to all citizens at all times.” Wis. Stat. § 19.81(2). It think they would be in better compliance with the law if they were to require recordings and make them accessible to the public so we can have full accessibility to the meetings. To me this would allow for required accommodations as outlined in the third bullet point below. And note the bolded portion below.
Attorney General Guidance on Virtual Meetings
MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Open Government (OOG) continues to prepare additional information in response to inquiries as to the applicability of the Wisconsin’s open meetings law, Wis. Stat. §§ 19.81 to 19.98, in light of current public health concerns regarding COVID-19. This advisory is provided pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.98.
Conducting open meetings remotely can pose a number of technological and practical issues that governmental bodies should consider in advance, including, among other things, the following:
- Governmental bodies must ensure that they follow the notice requirements of Wis. Stat. § 19.84 and such notice should inform the public that the meeting will be held remotely and provide all information necessary for the public to monitor the meeting.
- Notices should provide instructions for how the public may access the remote meeting, whether it is to be held via telephone conference call or video conference call. This includes providing the telephone number, video conference link, and any necessary passcodes or other login information.
- As DOJ’s Office of Open Government advised in its March 17, 2020 advisory, a governmental body conducting a meeting remotely should be mindful of the possibility that it may be particularly burdensome or even infeasible for one or more individuals who would like to observe a meeting to do so remotely—for example, for people without telephone or internet access or who are deaf or hard of hearing—and appropriate accommodations should be made to facilitate reasonable access to the meeting for such individuals.
- When conducting a videoconference or internet-based meeting, the governmental body should strongly consider providing the public with an alternative telephone dial-in option for observing such a meeting so that lack of internet access is not a barrier to observing the meeting.
- At the beginning of each meeting conducted remotely, the chair of the governmental body should encourage all body members to identify themselves before they begin speaking and not to speak over one another. This will help all those listening to the meeting better understand who is speaking.
- When possible, a governmental body may wish to consider recording the meeting and posting it on its website as soon as practicable after the meeting concludes.
- As a bottom line, governmental bodies meeting remotely can and should consider steps that ensure that their meetings remain open and accessible to the public.If you have questions or concerns regarding the application of the open meetings law, please contact the Office of Open Government at (608) 267-2220.
See also:
March 17, 2020 – Office of Open Government Advisory: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Open Meetings
I hope all city committees are planning to record their meetings and I think the city should make it a high priority to allow Alders to record their neighborhood meetings on city business as well.
