The City of Pleasant Hill said it will become the latest Bay Area city to suspect remote comments during public meetings, after it was targeted this week by hate speech.
Pleasant Hill joins San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Union City, Concord, San Ramon, Livermore, and Sonoma County as municipalities that have restricted Zoom and phone-in public comments during public meetings, which became popular during the pandemic as a way for boards to hear from constituents.
In many cases, the callers remained anonymous or used fake names to push antisemitic and white nationalist and other far right views, much of which had nothing to do with city or county business.
Pleasant Hill Mayor Tim Flaherty said Thursday in a statement Tuesday city council meeting was “the latest target of an organized effort by an anonymous group to disrupt local agencies’ orderly conduct of public meetings with vile, offensive hate speech.”
“In light of this incident and reflecting upon the rise of these incidents in the Bay Area, the state, and throughout the nation, the City of Pleasant Hill has made the difficult decision to suspend the availability of remote participation in city meetings,” Flaherty said. “The meetings will continue to be livestreamed, and residents can view them via the city’s YouTube channel, website, and on cable television, but no remote access for public participation will be available for any of the city’s public meetings until further notice.”
“ … in order to prevent the disruption of our public meetings, it is a necessary step. Hate speech and attacks on members of the population are not welcome in Pleasant Hill, and we cannot permit our public meetings to be disrupted.” Pleasant Hill Mayor Tim Flaherty
Showing up to meetings to comment is still allowed in all California public meetings. The state’s Brown Act, which governs the rules of public meetings in the state, requires municipalities to allow people to comment in person.
Written correspondence is also permitted in most cases. Flaherty said comments submitted via email or through the mail on any agenda item, or a general statement on a non-agenda item, can be received by staff up until 4 p.m. on the day of a meeting and be included in the meeting’s minutes.
“We recognize that this will be an inconvenience for those viewing our meetings remotely, and we apologize for that,” Flaherty said. “However, in order to prevent the disruption of our public meetings, it is a necessary step. Hate speech and attacks on members of the population are not welcome in Pleasant Hill, and we cannot permit our public meetings to be disrupted.”
Targeted by hate speech, Pleasant Hill joins others in restricting remote public comment
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The City of Pleasant Hill said it will become the latest Bay Area city to suspect remote comments during public meetings, after it was targeted this week by hate speech.
Pleasant Hill joins San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Union City, Concord, San Ramon, Livermore, and Sonoma County as municipalities that have restricted Zoom and phone-in public comments during public meetings, which became popular during the pandemic as a way for boards to hear from constituents.
In many cases, the callers remained anonymous or used fake names to push antisemitic and white nationalist and other far right views, much of which had nothing to do with city or county business.
Pleasant Hill Mayor Tim Flaherty said Thursday in a statement Tuesday city council meeting was “the latest target of an organized effort by an anonymous group to disrupt local agencies’ orderly conduct of public meetings with vile, offensive hate speech.”
“In light of this incident and reflecting upon the rise of these incidents in the Bay Area, the state, and throughout the nation, the City of Pleasant Hill has made the difficult decision to suspend the availability of remote participation in city meetings,” Flaherty said. “The meetings will continue to be livestreamed, and residents can view them via the city’s YouTube channel, website, and on cable television, but no remote access for public participation will be available for any of the city’s public meetings until further notice.”
Showing up to meetings to comment is still allowed in all California public meetings. The state’s Brown Act, which governs the rules of public meetings in the state, requires municipalities to allow people to comment in person.
Written correspondence is also permitted in most cases. Flaherty said comments submitted via email or through the mail on any agenda item, or a general statement on a non-agenda item, can be received by staff up until 4 p.m. on the day of a meeting and be included in the meeting’s minutes.
“We recognize that this will be an inconvenience for those viewing our meetings remotely, and we apologize for that,” Flaherty said. “However, in order to prevent the disruption of our public meetings, it is a necessary step. Hate speech and attacks on members of the population are not welcome in Pleasant Hill, and we cannot permit our public meetings to be disrupted.”