Despite pleas, no more tuning into council via Zoom

OCEAN CITY – In spite of pleas from some members of the public, Ocean City Council is not going to resume Zoom access to meetings any time soon.

Council President Pete Madden and city Business Administrator George Savastano laid out their reasons why they don’t believe it is needed during council’s meeting Thursday evening.

At council’s prior meeting in July, a number of people stood up to ask council to keep Zoom access to meetings, which was begun during the pandemic when attendance at public meetings was curtailed.

Suzanne Hornick, a city resident who regularly attended council meetings in person and then continued to speak up during public comment via Zoom once it was instituted, was at the Aug. 11 meeting. She said she emailed all the members of council about keeping Zoom, but heard back only from Madden.

Hornick said the decision shouldn’t just be up to council since they’ve received emails from residents asking for Zoom access to be restored and that the emails were “not from just the usual suspects,” a phrasing she said Madden used in an interview to “belittle, demean, insult people of Ocean City who choose to participate in and try to effect positive change in our government. I didn’t appreciate that comment by you.”

She asked Madden to explain the reason behind the decision to remove access from people who ordinarily couldn’t participate but had opportunity to engage with their local government.

“We don’t want a council that isn’t transparent and discourages people from participating in local government, and this seems like that is what’s happening. I also ask … that council passes a resolution at the meeting ensuring city public meetings ensure a Zoom option. The biggest part of your job, the job that we the residents and property owners and business people have hired you to do, is to represent your constituents in all things,” she said.

Resident Donna Moore added the city also should add Zoom access to the Planning Board and Zoning Board meetings.

“We’re always looking and adapting to a changing environment,” Madden said during council reports. “We’re trying to do the best for the many, not the few.”

He pointed out that council meetings are videotaped and available by the morning after the meeting and that those archives remain online and accessible. He said the public has the ability to attend the meetings. 

“We have probably the most accessible council and administration,”  he said. “We can be emailed, called, texted at any time if there is an important issue that anyone wants to talk about.”

Madden said these are “business” meetings. “This is not a made-for-TV soap opera.”

He pointed out that most of the people who speak up during public comment are regulars at the meetings and that was the same for Zoom comment.

“We’re not going to make decisions on the few. We’re going to make them on the many,” he said.

Savastano said although the decision was up to City Council, because it is their meeting, he and Mayor Jay Gillian agree it is not “a good idea” to continue with Zoom access.

He said Zoom was necessary during the pandemic, but not now.

Ocean City government is transparent, he added, and council goes out of its way to have an additional 30-minute public comment session near the start of the meeting, even though it is not required by law. “That’s done as a courtesy to citizens,” he said. Requiring those who make the effort to attend the meeting share that limited time with Zoom participants isn’t fair.

He reminded citizens that public comment is not necessary from a business standpoint, that it isn’t a question-and-answer session, and that if a citizen has a concern about something on the agenda, which are (generally) posted 48 hours in advance, they can call the administration or city government or send an email.

He said of 21 towns he surveyed in Cape May and Atlantic counties that had added Zoom, 18 had discontinued it. “You’re a municipal corporation. To run a professional business meaning, it’s not logical or, to me, helpful to have Zoom in addition to what you already do by law … to be transparent as possible,” Savastano said.

By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff