Reality TV: How are Durango public officials adjusting to Zoom?

Do virtual meetings foster or limit civic participation?

Dogs leaping into a city councilor’s lap. Crunching on tortilla chips without hitting mute. Kids yelling and partners doing chores in the background.

Eight months into the coronavirus pandemic, public officials in Durango are settling into virtual public meetings on the Zoom platform.

And the pros and cons are becoming increasingly clear.

Melissa Youssef, a Durango city councilor, said members of the council are still navigating how to interact with each other without the subliminal body language messages that are lost in virtual meetings.

“It’s hard to butt in and have your voice heard,” Youssef said.

But the council has adapted to “unwritten rules” over time about speaking up on Zoom meetings, she said. For example, if someone has a muted microphone, and they unmute, it means they are ready to speak.

“As a team, we’ve gotten better at making sure we ask if anyone wants to speak,” Youssef said.

Over the past several months, the Durango City Council has made several important decisions for the city over Zoom, including hiring a new city manager, José Madrigal, and working on finalizing the new budget.

Amber Blake, assistant city manager, said it is “more important now than ever to be very cognizant of the words you’re using,” because it’s a challenge to “read the room” over Zoom.

“It feels like people are interrupting each other when they really aren’t,” said City Councilor Kim Baxter. The dialogue just doesn’t flow as naturally over Zoom, she said.

Impact on public comments

For Youssef, it is more difficult for public officials to establish trust with constituents over Zoom than in person. And people who want to make public comments don’t have the power of eye contact and human connection with city councilors. Unlike city officials, members of the public don’t have their cameras activated during meetings and appear as a black screen, maybe with their name or a phone number, she said.

Read the full article on the Durango Herald at: https://durangoherald.com/articles/355569-reality-tv-how-are-durango-public-officials-adjusting-to-zoom