~by Janice Harbaugh for GreeneCountyNewsOnline
Public support for public electronic access to the Greene County board of supervisors’ weekly meetings is strong as voiced by speakers at the board meeting on March 29.
Four people spoke in favor of continuing Zoom access and possibly expanding it to improve quality, adding video, and adding recording so the meeting can be accessed at any time online.
One person attended the meeting in person and three attended through Zoom. Board members reported they had received calls from other members of the public in favor of continuing Zoom.
Nancy Hanaman, attending electronically from Rippey, spoke of the 8:30 am meetings on Monday mornings as limiting attendance, both in person and electronically. “If the meetings were posted on Facebook or YouTube, more folks would be available to watch,” she said.
Hanaman supported upgrading to better technology as it develops in the future.
Darren Jackson, who is on the Jefferson city council, attended in person. He recommended local video expert Sean Sebourn as a resource in improving the quality of the electronic access, audio, and recording.
“Both the school board and the city council have remote access,” Jackson said. “Cost is not much of a factor. Since we’ve done it, we’ve received feedback from lots of people using it.”
“It’s a way to better inform constituents,” Jackson said. “Transparent government is good government.”
Chris Henning from Cooper, attending electronically, said, “Don’t hide your light under a bushel. Add openness and transparency to your work. Continue your good work. Zoom saves miles and time (for constituents.)
“We have nothing to hide,” said board chair John Muir. “We need for someone to take over the hosting responsibility.”
Supervisor Pete Bardole has been manning the Zoom controls and felt it takes away his focus from board work during the meetings.
Bardole said, “We get calls (in support of Zoom.) People are paying attention.”
Muir said, “We haven’t made a hard decision yet. We need parameters on open forum (if more people were to attend electronically and want to speak.)”
Ginny Showman of Jefferson, attending electronically, said, “The board could miss a great opportunity to inform and engage people. Give people more opportunity to be involved. Take advantage of the technology available.”
Muir said, “We haven’t discontinued it. We won’t do away with it (at this time.) The input is great (from the public.) Keep letting us know.”
In other business, Muir confirmed the county’s mask mandate expires March 31.
“It will be the individual’s choice as to what they think about personal protection and the protection of others,” Muir said. “We’re not discouraging the use of face masks.”
The board agreed that businesses can require masks to come into their places of business.
“Masks are not required in the courthouse, but (once inside) it’s an office by office decision,” said Muir.
“The Mask mandate could change if the positivity rate gets back over 15 percent, he added.
County attorney Thomas Laehn reported the trial case load continues to be heavy with a trial each month for the next six or seven months.
“Last Friday was the busiest day of my career,” Laehn said. “Twenty-nine pretrial conferences.”
Laehn said a draft of the new Bell Tower policies was given to the Bell Tower Community Foundation on March 19. He is awaiting feedback before presenting it to the board of supervisors.
Bardole presented photographs of four sculptures chosen by the Jefferson Matters: Tower View Team in this year’s Ring Out for Art sculpture contest. Bardole said there were 26 sculptures by 10 artists entered from several states.
“The contest is becoming well enough known that it’s bringing in the art community,” Bardole said.
The board considered each photograph and agreed all four “represented the message we want to send in celebration of the bell tower.” Agreement on this is required by the public art policy for art exhibited on courthouse grounds.
The public will vote on which sculpture will be the one to remain on courthouse grounds after the other three are removed in November, according to Muir.
The board unanimously passed Resolution 2021-12: A Resolution Approving the Placement of Sculptures on the Courthouse Grounds in Celebration of the Mahanay Carillon Tower.
The four sculptures will be on display on courthouse grounds from May 1 through Nov. 1, with the popular winner to remain until April 30, 2022.
