Fernley City Councilman Stan Lau called out his fellow council members for what he called “chaos” after personalities clashed, tempers flared, and frustration ensued at last Wednesday’s Fernley City Council meeting.
Lau had originally seconded a motion by Councilman Ryan Hanan related to rules of decorum for council members participating in meetings via Zoom. However, after council members disagreed about whether such a policy is necessary, Lau withdrew his second and expressed his frustration.
“I’ve been here 11 years. I’m the oldest city councilman up here and there’s been a lot of changes. Right now, I’ve never seen more chaos on a city council than right now, in this last year, and I’m going to withdraw my second because I see that the council wants chaos,” Lau said. “We have rules, decorum. We’re not following them. It’s absolute chaos up here.”
The discussion was held during an agenda item requested by Councilman Ryan Hanan that would have required council members remotely attending a council meeting to do so with their video cameras turn on.
In making his motion originally, Hanan moved “to direct the city attorney to revise the rules in regard to digital participation, phone participation, with exceptions for illness and family emergencies, additionally, digital appearances should require members to be stationary, camera on, participating, if they are granted permission to access via Zoom or other digital media.”
Lau quickly provided the second.
“There’s five adults up here. I don’t need a babysitter to tell me whether or not I need to be on video,” Councilman Albert Torres responded. “A lot of entities, commissions and city councils have actually gotten away totally from Zoom and they are calling in because Zoom takes so much more of the (city) clerk’s time,” he said.
Torres cited several instances when he would not want to be on video, such as in a motel where the computers are in the lobby and the council audience would be able to see passersby in the lobby background, or when a council person may be ill. He also noted one situation when he was in Canada and he had no Wi-Fi, so he had to call into a council meeting.
“Does that mean I have to take that as an unexcused absence?” he asked. “Why is this a big deal and why do we have to make that a part of policy? I think this is great overreach,” Torres added.
Councilwoman Felicity Zoberski said she had done some research, and she thought both sides of the issue had merit, but she was a little uncomfortable with showing the inside of her home on a public video conference, adding that she thought “If they’re voting and they’re there for the meeting, then they’re there.”
Torres said if voters have a problem with how a council member is conducting themselves, then the voters need to talk to the council member.
“It is not any single council person’s job to babysit the rest of us,” Torres said. “This is a huge overreach on your part. We are adults. We were elected. None of us answer to each other. We answer to the voters.”
Hanan responded that council members should hold themselves to a higher standard and said it is incumbent upon all council members “to be here and to be participatory.” He asked if remotely participating council members are not on video, how is the public to know if they are being attentive and participating?
“The people elect us to sit up here. They don’t elect us to sit at home or to be in our car, or to be on vacation on Zoom with your camera off, not participating,” he said. “That should be an unexcused absence in my opinion. I’ve never missed a meeting because I make it a priority.”
Addressing City Attorney Aaron Mouritsen, Lau said, “Aaron, you need to start doing something instead of just sitting there. Mayor, you need to get a little stronger up here. Actually, you need to get real strong up here. There’s people on their phones right now. Mayor (Roy) Edgington used to yell at people on their phones. Right now, this is a weak council.”
Zoberski said she could not support Hanan’s motion because none of her voters are complaining about a lack of transparency due to a council member not being on video when attending a meeting remotely. She also said she was “not sure it’s my place to police the council up here.”
Since Lau had rescinded his second to Hanan’s motion, and no other second to the motion was offered, Mayor Neal McIntyre declared the motion failed.
Comment
Comments