Clash over streaming of Wellington council meetings
Town council meetings were live-streamed online before members had a chance to discuss the measure, but the committee chairman responsible says it was an “urgent” decision and he was right to use his powers to make it.
Wellington Town Council conducts its meetings using Zoom teleconferencing software to comply with social distancing guidelines, and broadcasts the video feed on its Facebook page.
Policy and resources committee chairman Stephen DeLauney said this was an “easy way of providing access”, compared to providing a link to interested residents who requested one, and satisfied the legal requirement for meetings to be open to the public.
But Councillor Dorothy Roberts said “a decision of that magnitude should not be made just on one person’s say-so”, and Councillor Sylvia Hall said a document, sent out to members explaining the teleconferencing procedure, did not mention that they would be broadcast.
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Councillor DeLauney said that , with physical meetings prohibited, “we could have provided access to meetings online for anyone who wanted to join them, but live streaming seemed to be an easy way of providing access for everyone”.
Councillor Roberts asked: “How was it decided that our meetings should go live onto Facebook?
“I am really very miffed it was decided without any discussion in council, and that is not democratic.”
Councillor Hall said: “I’ve just been looking at the proposed way of holding virtual meetings that was sent out prior to the first one.
“It doesn’t mention anywhere that we were going to do live streaming.”
The first meeting to be live streamed by the town council was a planning committee meeting, which, Councillor DeLauney admitted, he took part in without knowing it was itself being made available online.
“But the decision to try live streaming and see what was involved – then, if it was satisfactory, continue with live streaming – was down to me and the clerk reacting to what we thought was most appropriate in the circumstances,” he said.
Councillor DeLauney said council policies give him and the clerk “the right to act on behalf of the council if there are urgent things that need to be undertaken”.
Councillor Roberts said Facebook is an “up-close and personal” medium that “can be seen as an infringement of the personal space of councillors”, and Councillor Hall said the social network “has some ways of misinterpreting what you mean at a later date”.
But town mayor Anthony Lowe welcomed live streaming.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to eliminate what you might call the democratic deficit that exists in this society,” he said.
“We’re doing our little bit here in Wellington. Maybe we’ve been prompted by the virus and by lockdown, but so be it.”
