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Council acknowledges written comment on critical areas ordinance as meeting suffers internet disruptions
Summary
On July 15 the presiding officer told attendees the meeting would likely not be recorded because of repeated Zoom disconnects; council members acknowledged receipt of a written public comment concerning the city's Critical Areas Ordinance and agreed the clerk would keep written minutes as the official record.
The presiding officer of the Spokane Valley City Council told attendees at the start of the July 15 meeting that repeated internet disruptions had forced the council to treat the session as unrecorded and that the city clerk would keep written minutes as the official record.
“We are having internet difficulties, and we've already been bumped out a few times and able to reconnect, but it's not staying connected. So we're going to consider this a meeting that's not going to be recorded,” the presiding officer said, adding that staff would continue to reconnect and that “this meeting will have just written minutes as the official record.”
During roll call the council excused two members for the day and approved the agenda; those procedural motions were recorded without roll-call attribution in the transcript. The presiding officer then asked about public comment and confirmed that council members had received a single written submission: “Regarding critical areas ordinance,” the clerk said when identifying the subject of the written comment. The transcript does not include the text of that submission.
The city attorney, attending by Zoom, confirmed connectivity problems from his location and said he had been kicked off the meeting link: “I'm the city attorney. I'm attending this meeting by Zoom. The city's Internet keeps going in and out,” he said. Multiple participants later discussed switching between Zoom and YouTube streams, and several identified themselves as on standby by phone in case staff needed them.
Nut graf: Because of the technical problems the council made an administrative decision to rely on written minutes instead of a full audio/video record and to proceed with the meeting despite intermittent disconnections. The council acknowledged receipt of one written public comment on the Critical Areas Ordinance; the content of that comment was not read into the record in the available transcript.
The transcript records informal coordination among meeting participants after the disruptions. One participant said the city administrator, Sonny Weathers, would return to the office Thursday and that staff would confer with him about a pending request; another participant said a 250-word submission was being finalized for county review and was down to about 220 words. Several speakers attributed connectivity issues to wind at the Five Mile Prairie.
Ending: The presiding officer and staff said they would continue the meeting despite the technical limitations and the clerk would retain written minutes as the official record; the council proceeded with its agenda items.
