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Making real-time public comments by telephone during Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors meetings should be possible by the time the supervisors hold their next regular meeting on May 12, county officials said Tuesday.
County Administrator David Twa told the supervisors that an AT&T toll-free system should be in place by then to allow callers to take part in remote meetings as if they were commenting in front of the board in person.
In this era of public meetings held via the internet on Zoom out of fears of spreading the coronavirus, people commenting on topics at the past few county Board of Supervisors meetings have sent in emails, which were then read aloud by a board clerk into the record.
County Supervisor Candace Andersen said the phone technology will allow more direct participation and interaction.
Emails will still be accepted, she said, but will no longer be read aloud into the public record. Emails will simply be acknowledged and entered into the meeting record without being read aloud, as they were when live, in-person meetings were the rule.
“We’re trying to mirror, as much as we can, a regular meeting,” Andersen said.
Supervisor Karen Mitchoff said making participation more robust is important now because a new audience of prospective commenters is paying attention to the supervisors directly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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