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COURT HOUSE – More than a year into the pandemic, towns are beginning to return to normal concerning government meetings.
After shuttering residents from borough halls at the onset of the Covid outbreak in March 2020, municipalities were challenged with facilitating their involvement in open government.
This was done in different ways, with varying degrees of success. There were several challenges, disruptors, and adjustments. The term “Zoombombing” became part of the lexicon.
However, in many towns, residents can get out of the little box on the computer, which contained them in recent months, and confront their elected officials face to face.
Cape May and Ocean City resumed allowing in-person attendance in recent weeks.
Starting March 16, Cape May City Council invited the public to attend its meetings, limiting attendance to 10, and announced temperature checks, mandatory masks, and social distancing for those attending.
They are also accepting live phone calls and will read emails submitted up to one hour before the meeting into the record for those who cannot attend. They livestream the proceedings on the city’s website.
Ocean City Council brought the public back to its meetings March 11, and in doing so, sought large venues, hosting one meeting at Ocean City High School’s auditorium and another at the Music Pier.
Both venues can accommodate much larger crowds than City Hall, where they met before March 2020, allowing more social distancing.
The council took questions and hosted a Zoom component, though the first week saw problems that left some members of the public stuck in a virtual waiting room, unable to participate.
Other towns, like Middle Township and West Wildwood, are only allowing Zoom participation.
In North Wildwood, in-person meetings have been the norm for a while, with no remote option for the public to watch or participate.
Mayor Patrick Rosenello said if a request for such access was made, it would be accommodated.
North Wildwood’s meetings are held inside the municipal courtroom, and rarely draw more than five members of the public. However, a ceremony to swear in firefighters, in February, drew a large, standing-room-only crowd of family, friends and emergency personnel.
After the meeting, Rosenello stood behind the decision to hold the ceremony, saying firefighters being vaccinated was part of what convinced the city that holding the swearing-in was safe.
A few weeks later, in March, North Wildwood City Council welcomed a group of school children, who performed an annual ceremony on Greek Independence Day. It also drew a crowd of parents and supporters, though smaller than the firefighter ceremony.
Other towns handled similar events differently.
In Wildwood Crest, a ceremony to swear in and promote police officers was moved to Crest Pier, a gymnasium with more space for social distancing than the small municipal courtroom, where other meetings are held.
Wildwood Crest allows a limited number of the public into meetings and livestreams them on Facebook and YouTube. They take calls through a conference line, in case anyone participating remotely wishes to be heard.
In Stone Harbor, meetings are held for the public on Zoom, though borough officials resumed meeting together in the regular room.
Lower Township returned to fully in-person meetings, but they also post a video of the completed meeting to the municipal website after it concludes.
Avalon allows in-person participation, as well as takes remote comments via a telephone conference line, which came under criticism when its capacity was tested during a Zoning Board meeting to hear plans for a new, two-story restaurant and banquet facility on the boardwalk, for which former Philadelphia Flyers player and local real estate agent Tim Kerr was seeking approval.
The proposal was eventually shot down, but the lengthy meeting showcased the system’s pitfalls (https://bit.ly/39XWd0O).
For second homeowners, who pay taxes but often feel left out of local politics since they cannot vote in elections and face logistical problems attending meetings in the offseason, the increased access is one of the few positives resulting from the pandemic.
Some towns have seen this as a reason to keep “Zooming” post-pandemic.
Wildwood recently paid to upgrade its meeting room and remote system, and Mayor Peter Byron said they will continue to take remote comments once pandemic-related restrictions are lifted (https://bit.ly/3dOrBjI).
To contact Shay Roddy, email sroddy@cmcherald.com.
