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****NEW BUSINESS**** <br /> 17. Communication from Councilmember Bullock regarding Council Budget Priority <br /> Process. (pg. 29) <br /> Councilmember Bullock made a motion, seconded by President O'Malley to receive and <br /> file the communication. <br /> A roll call vote was taken as follows: <br /> Yeas —Bullock, Kepple, Litten, Neff, O'Malley, Rader, Shachner <br /> Nays —None <br /> Motion passed. The communication was received and filed. <br /> **** <br /> 18. Communication from Councilmember Kepple regarding virtual meeting technology <br /> &accessibility. (to be provided) <br /> Councilmember Kepple read the following report into the record: <br /> Dear Colleagues, <br /> When we first began meeting virtually due to the public health crisis, I'm sure that we all <br /> hoped that we would return to in person meetings by the fall. Clerk of Council Bach <br /> diligently researched how we could achieve these goals through COVID-19 specific <br /> procedures. With the number of cases climbing our most sensible, responsible, and <br /> acceptable course of action is to continue to meet virtually and to improve our <br /> technological tools. Our current meeting method puts the elected officials, participants, <br /> administrative staff, and the public at zero health risk. Ibleiev that on the balance that it <br /> provides more access to the public during the pandemic period than meeting in person <br /> would because virtual meetings do not require them to put themselves at risk. Virtual <br /> attendance takes less effort to participate and they can see each of our faces. If we were to <br /> return to chambers and use the traditional camera, those at home would only see those on <br /> the dais, which would be a small portion of Council and the administration. Continuing to <br /> meet virtually provides more access rather than less and I for one have only received <br /> positive feedback from the community about meeting in this manner. The only drawback <br /> around meeting this way has been security around appropriate comments and content. <br /> For that, I recommend that we switch to Zoom for meetings. The Zoom interface provides <br /> more options for limiting these comments and allows for content to be posted on YouTube, <br /> and also provides for closed captioning. For the last month or so, we have actually been <br /> adding closed captioning to the Council recordings, which I appreciate IT Manager Coletta <br /> and Clerk Bach for helping us out with that. If we move to Zoom, we can make that a more <br /> efficient process for them. We should also reinvest in the eComment software, which I <br /> think was really catching on as our free trial ended. The software allows more people to <br />