It is surprising that nobody has sued our city council over its meeting strategy of using Zoom rather than real public meetings. This Zoom process unfairly places the onus on a citizen to own a computer and pay for internet access in order to be able to comment on city legislative matters. This restricts comment on legislation to those rich enough to pay the entry fee, creating a stifling effect very similar to a poll tax.
This council conduct may be temporarily excusable due to Covid-19, but only if the council had kept its promise to just consider routine business, such as authorizing payments for existing payroll and for services that were contracted prior to their meetings shutdown. Our city council has not kept that promise.
The large scale discretionary matters it is now considering, such as closing a public street and favoring selected merchants with special benefits from the expenditure of public funds, constitutes an abuse of power, a possible gift of those public funds, and a flouting of the requirements to provide for real public comment on such issues.
It only seems fair that those who make the rules should play by the rules. That’s not what is happening now.
JJ Gasparotti, Laguna Beach
