Washington County supervisors will keep Zoom at meetings

WASHINGTON — Members of the Washington County Board of Supervisors took no action Tuesday morning on an agenda item that would have ended the use of Zoom to broadcast most public meetings. The meeting was attended by roughly two dozen online participants.

The board’s decision came after comments from county department heads who said they wanted no change to the virtual service. Washington County Public Health Director Emily Tokheim said she agreed with remarks by Emergency Management Coordinator Marissa Reisen, which Tokheim read on the latter’s behalf during a public comment period.

"County department heads, city staff and the public have all expressed their requests and opinions about these options, and yet the board may decide to go another direction,“ the statement said. ”I hope that you choose to continue using this option that allows everyone in the county a chance to actually attend your meetings.“

While discussing an unrelated subject, County Engineer Jacob Thorius spoke with supervisors through the online platform, saying he “appreciated the option” to attend remotely, as he was out of the office feeling ill.

The county’s current practice allows remote meeting attendance, but does not allow virtual attendees to speak during public comment periods or, in the case of remote department heads, give updates on non-agenda items. The county does not typically use Zoom for work sessions, or other meetings without action items.

Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said the board had grappled in the past with Zoom attendees who made distracting and non-constructive remarks outside of public comment periods using the platform’s written chat feature. With that function now disabled during county meetings, he said there were few downsides to the service.

“I don’t see any reason to change what we’re doing right now,” Seward said. “As we’ve seen right now with Jacob being able to participate from a remote location, I don’t see any reason to stop using Zoom.”

Board of Supervisor Chair Bob Yoder arranged for the item’s placement on Tuesday morning’s agenda. He said he had mixed feelings about the platform, but accepted that a motion for changes would be unlikely to pass.

“There’s some things I like about Zoom, there’s other things I don’t care for,” he said. “People are getting to the point where, rather than going to a meeting, they just do Zoom … I still go to meetings the old-fashioned way because I want to learn to get to know my fellow committee members.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com