Among a grid of faces, a silent talking head is interrupted: âYouâre muted.â
Streamed live online or posted as video conference links, public meetings look and sound different from pre-pandemic town hall and school cafeteria gatherings. The global and ongoing COVID-19 health crisis has ushered virtual meetings to the fore of government operations, inviting public participation through screens and chat boxes.
In the year since the first wave of the pandemic, and like people around the world, public meetings have undergone a sort of existential crisis: What exactly constitutes an open, public meeting?
In the tri-county region, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence County public officials have logged onto Zoom Video Communications, YouTube, Facebook, Google Meet and Cisco Webex â to name a few â to do the publicâs business.