New Public Meeting Format Tested

STONE HARBOR – The pandemic forced governing bodies across the county to use new formats for public meetings. For Stone Harbor, the need for virtual meetings opened a door to a surprising level of positive public feedback.
Finding that borough residents and second homeowners embraced the interactive access virtual meetings provide, town officials are working to find a comfortable format that can support ongoing interactive virtual participation for the public, even as meetings return to in-person formats.
Stone Harbor Borough Council took a new format for a test spin, with the normal kinks that accompany new formats. 
Since the pandemic continues to limit in-person gatherings, the format, for now, involves the in-person meeting of the mayor and the six-person council, socially distant from each other and masked at all times. A few borough officials joined the in-person meeting.
Members of the public were kept at a distance, participating through Zoom.
The borough intends to continue a format that allows virtual access, even after the public is allowed to attend the in-person meetings. Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour said the new format would be used for Planning and Zoning Board meetings, as well, placing added demands on what the format can accommodate, in terms of displaying drawings and presentations.
Council members could interact with each other more freely, during their Sept. 1 meeting, than when they were on Zoom. The first time, glitches were few and minor – a microphone that wasn’t turned on properly and a delay when a member of the public called and was not sure he could be heard.
The development of a hybrid model that marries in-person meetings with interactive virtual participation grew out of discussions at the July 7 council meeting. Council members agreed on the need to preserve the higher level of public participation at council meetings, even as the borough migrates to in-person gatherings.
Davies-Dunhour said, “The feedback we have received from the public has been very positive.” She directed Business Administrator Robert Smith to “look into” possible formats.
At the same meeting, Councilwoman Jennifer Gensemer said the use of interactive virtual technology for meetings “greatly increases transparency in government.”
The format tested Sept. 1 grew out of that charge to Smith to find a way to preserve the best features of virtual public access.
Smith began working with a local video company founded by Martin Fiedler, who is also a faculty member at Atlantic Cape Community College. The format moves away from the talking-heads-in-boxes model many experienced in Zoom gatherings.
The video system tested at the Sept. 1 council meeting allows the camera to focus on a specific speaker, fan out to the full room for group discussion, and display presentation material. Even though council members were wearing masks, the audio was clear.
The format allows the public the option of “raising a virtual hand” for public comment, or at other points when public participation is allowed.
The test run showed the potential of the model. It also showed the commitment of the borough to preserve the pandemic’s unexpected side-effect, the increased public interest.
In a community where the vast majority of property owners live at a distance most of the year, that may be the most important result to come out of the forced turn to virtual meetings, in March.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.