Jefferson County supervisors adapt to online meetings

JEFFERSON COUNTY - Like nearly all boards across the state, the Jefferson County Supervisors are now conducting their meetings online through a video conferencing platform called Zoom.

The supervisors began meeting online in late March, with a few hiccups.

'We're having technical difficulties,” Supervisor chairman Daryn Hamilton said.

Supervisor Dee Sandquist said she's been trying to push the county to put its meetings online for the past two years, long before the coronavirus made it a necessity.

'I'd like to try to get a different format, something like the city does,” Sandquist said, referring to how Fairfield City Council meetings are taped by the Fairfield Media Center, which uploads them to YouTube and broadcasts them on its local cable access channel. 'But we've found one tech glitch after another. Right now, I'm just happy we're online.”

Sandquist said part of the problem with these early Zoom meetings is that the Jefferson County Courthouse is an old building, and as such is not well equipped to support Wi-Fi, wireless fiber internet. The supervisors have recorded a few of their meetings intending to put them on YouTube, but technical difficulties prevented that from happening.

'The internet cut out partway through,” Sandquist said.

In early April, Supervisor Lee Dimmitt told The Union that he hopes the supervisors don't rely on Zoom meetings for very long.

'I'm not happy about it,” Dimmitt said at the time. 'It's inconvenient for people trying to listen in. If you don't have internet or a computer, it limits your participation. In my humble opinion, it's not the best way to give access to the public or to conduct a meeting. But at this point, I'm not sure what else we can do.”

Dimmitt said the supervisors are almost unique in how much freedom they give members of the public to speak during their meetings. For instance, the Fairfield City Council requires that those wishing to address the council submit a request to do so before the meeting. The supervisors allow those in attendance to voice their opinions on any subject during the meeting. All they have to do is raise their hand and the chair will call on them.

'We don't hold the public to a time frame or say you have to be on the agenda to speak,” Dimmitt said. 'You have every right to speak. It's a body that you're paying taxes to.”

But since the supervisors have gone to online meetings, the only way the public can access them is through a computer or phone with internet. They have to go to the Zoom website and type in the meeting number, which is published in the supervisors' agenda, or they can call a telephone number also published in the agenda.

Under the protocols the supervisors are following for Zoom, a member of the public can watch and listen to the proceedings. If they wish to make a comment, they can participate by speaking into their computer's microphone, or simply by talking into their phone if they have called in. Hamilton said the supervisors are using the webinar set up for zoom, which puts him in charge of the meeting and can control who can speak.

'We don't have any real computer support at the courthouse,” Hamilton said. 'I'm making every effort I can to make it accessible to the community.”