WESTLOCK - “I’ll call our virtual meeting to order,” said mayor Ralph Leriger March 23, when Town of Westlock councillors met online, remotely, for an hour-long council meeting.
This is part of the new reality of COVID-19 self-isolation and social distancing: municipalities are reorganizing how they conduct their public meetings.
The meeting started at the regular time of 6:30 p.m., but took place via Zoom, a remote conferencing service that CAO Simone Wiley says the town has been using for a while to ensure council participation if a member was not physically present.
Also present together with council and the CAO were director of operations Grant Gyurkovits and finance director Julia Seppola.
The procedure for media and the public to attend the virtual meeting is relatively simple.
On the town’s website, administration posts a link to the Zoom meeting with a login code. From there, the browser redirects the user to where they’re supposed to be.
On Monday, council proceeded in the typical way they would had they met in person, the only difference being that each were technically at home and there was no video — it can be boiled down to a conference call on a computer.
The software allows the meeting host to mute or unmute members of the public, virtual hands can also be ‘raised’ should someone wish to intervene.
Initially, voting was done via the virtual hands, but switched to “Aye” pronouncements from each councillor.
Westlock County’s March 24 council meeting was postponed to March 31 via conference call.
“We are hoping to get better clarification from Municipal Affairs about attendance of the public by electronic means,” said reeve Lou Hall in an e-mail March 23.
On that day, the county website advises, the public is invited to dial 1-587-328-1099 and enter the meeting ID 900-866-200 followed by the # key. The meeting will start at 4:30 p.m.
The budget meetings that were scheduled for March 25 and 26 were also postponed. One has been rescheduled for April 1 via electronic means. Attendance will follow the same procedures as the regular meeting, but the meeting ID is 444-989-844. It will start at 4 p.m.
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @andreea_res
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