By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
For the past three months Ocean City residents have been urging City Council to resume livestreaming its meetings on Zoom to make local government more accessible to the public.
It just may happen.
Council is expected to consider a resolution at its Sept. 22 meeting to reinstate Zoom to give residents another option for watching the governing body conduct its business. Councilman Jody Levchuk said he wants to put the resolution up for a vote by the seven-member governing body while indicating that he supports reinstating Zoom.
Levchuk initially proposed having an immediate vote at Council’s meeting on Thursday night after listening to the arguments from a handful of residents on why they believe Zoom should resume.
“(Let’s) just take it from there and try to understand, does it really hold up our meetings? Is it really such a problem? Just really explore it. In the meantime, I see no issue with having it, so I’d like to bring a motion to bring it back,” Levchuk said of Zoom.
However, Levchuk was told by City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson that a formal resolution would first have to be put in writing to make it official for a vote. The vote is expected at the Sept. 22 Council meeting.
Council President Pete Madden told Levchuk that Council did not completely rule out bringing back Zoom while listening to residents over the last three months.
“We’ve never stopped talking about it. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do it,” Madden said.
For more than two years, the public had the option of watching the meetings on Zoom or attending them in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. Council stopped livestreaming the meetings over Zoom in July, prompting an angry reaction from some residents.
“It’s wrong. It shouldn’t be happening,” Ocean City resident Suzanne Hornick, one of the most outspoken supporters of Zoom meetings, said of Council not offering the Zoom option now.
Hornick and other residents have repeatedly called for Council to resume the Zoom meetings in the last three months.
On Thursday night, residents reiterated their arguments that Zoom meetings make the local government more accessible and transparent to the public. They also said Zoom is convenient for people who can’t attend the meetings in person, particularly the elderly, residents with disabilities and second homeowners who don’t live in Ocean City full time.
“Zoom needs to come back,” Ocean City resident Bill Hartranft demanded during the public comment portion of the Council meeting.
Sheila Hartranft, his wife, said that Zoom is particularly helpful for people who have disabilities and are unable to attend meetings in person.
“Their voice has been taken away from them,” she said.
Bill and Sheila Hartranft also told Council that technology would make it easy for the city to resume Zoom meetings at very little cost.
“I simply can’t find a reasonable reason not to do it,” Sheila Hartranft said.
Prompting laughter from the Council members, Bill Hartranft sarcastically said he would be willing to contribute $20 to the city to help pay the expense of Zoom.
Donna Moore, another Ocean City resident who has been vocal in calling for Zoom meetings, believes they offer a “very democratic option” for people to participate in government business. Moore also wants the city to carry Planning Board and Zoning Board meetings on Zoom.
Like other communities, Ocean City held Council meetings on Zoom during the height of the pandemic when there were restrictions on indoor crowds. Then the city transitioned into a combination of in-person and Zoom meetings as the pandemic began to wane. In July, it ended the Zoom sessions in favor of completely in-person meetings.
Madden has pointed out that members of the public still have plenty of opportunities to interact with the governing body, including attending the Council meetings in person or by email, texts or simple phone calls “at any time.”
“This is a business meeting. It’s not a made-for-TV soap opera,” Madden said of the seriousness of the Council proceedings during comments in August.
In August, City Business Administrator George Savastano argued against resuming the Zoom sessions. Like Madden, he said members of the public have ample opportunity to participate in the local government without having Zoom as another option.
Savastano indicated he did not want Zoom to become a distraction. He called the Zoom sessions “more hurtful than helpful” when Council is trying to conduct serious meetings involving important business.
Levchuk said he has considered the arguments that Savastano made against resuming Zoom.
“I understand the whole administration side of the Zoom concept. I think George made an understandable argument,” Levchuk said. “But I just, in all honesty, can’t get past it and I’d like to make a motion to reinstate Zoom to our meetings if it’s OK with the rest of Council and our president.”
Councilman Tom Rotondi spoke to second the motion, but McCrosson explained that the resolution would first need to be put in writing for a legal vote.
Ocean City is not alone in ending Zoom for its Council meetings. Savastano said Ocean City surveyed 21 other towns that once offered Zoom as an option during the peak of the pandemic. He said only three of them still have Zoom.
