The public is being severely disenfranchised by the continued restriction of meetings and hearings to Zoom. While this emergency measure had to be endured during the most difficult time of the pandemic, there is absolutely no reason for it to continue now when restaurants, bars, sporting events, retail and every other venue where more than two people meet have opened up.
If there is an “abundance of caution” still being adhered to, it is possible to control the number of people entering municipal space at any given time. More to the point, the various boards have seized the opportunity to enjoy the limited public participation and public input (always a variable and a headache) that Zoom has afforded them to push their agendas. Or is it easier to continue to adjudicate from a home sofa with the ability to cut off any troublesome feed?
The Village of Southampton has been particularly resistant to urgent calls to open up the meetings and hearings again. Instead, they issue uncoordinated comments and vague references to waiting for state approval.
End it now.
Frances Genovese
Southampton
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