Modesto City Council Members hide behind a clock during Open Forum

 At last night's meeting, the Modesto City Council introduced a huge clock (timer) on Zoom that appears whenever a citizen speaks to the Council. No longer can citizens see the reactions of the Council members to what is being said. The Council members are being shielded behind this huge clock that takes up the entire screen. This is during the "Public Comments" portion of the City Council meeting, the time during which citizens can speak for three minutes on any item "not on the agenda." 

This huge clock first made its debut last Saturday during the four hour "Listening" session when the Council heard citizen input for improving the Modesto Police Department. Apparently somebody from the Council liked the huge clock because it made a cameo appearance at last night's Council meeting much to the chagrin of citizens who were speaking. 

 

 And nobody could see the facial expressions of any of the duly elected City Council members as citizens spoke on the issues of concern to them. 

And apparently those issues are of concern to the Mayor and Council too, so long as they don't have to look into a camera lens to prove that they are concerned! 

Former Council Member Grewal's weekly presentation

Of course I must not fail to mention that this "Public Comments" portion of the meeting was after a 40 minute "brief" COVID update from Former Council Member Mani Grewal (I know that he is a Board of Supervisors appointee) and a visiting female physician. Mr. Grewal has taken it upon himself to "educate" both Council and citizenry about COVID at every meeting since the pandemic started. There is no clock showing when he speaks, just when voters speak!

When the Council members talk, the clock disappears!

The irony of all of this is that when the Council members speak, the huge clock disappears and you are able to see the Council members' faces. And so they can look into the lens of the camera when they are talking, but not when they are listening to citizens talking. 

As Emerson Drake asked, "Is this even a Council meeting?"

 

I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that several of the members of the City Council, including the Mayor, were elected last year on a platform of "transparency." I think that getting rid of this huge clock might be a proper step in that direction. Smile! You're on camera!