Over the past few weeks, we have been grateful for the opportunity to connect with our community through virtual public comment sessions for our City Council meetings.
However, we must address a concerning issue that has recently arisen. Unfortunately, our City experienced incidents of “Zoom-bombing” during the virtual public comment session of our last City Council meeting. These incidents involve individuals joining our meetings via Zoom and using their allowed time to make inappropriate, disruptive, and racist comments that compromise the integrity of our council meetings.
The City is not alone in experiencing these types of disruptions, as many jurisdictions throughout California have been subject to similar experiences. Many cities have discontinued allowing virtual public comments to deter individuals from making offensive comments.
In light of these incidents, we have decided to temporarily discontinue the use of Zoom until the Council has a conversation about using this online platform and dealing with such disruptions. An in-depth discussion on this subject is expected to take place early next year.
In the meantime, we encourage residents to stay engaged with us through other means, such as email, phone calls, or attending in-person meetings if possible. Residents may also stream Council meetings live by visiting our website here:
The live stream is typically activated 15 minutes before the meeting starts. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to remedy the issue soon.