Tuesday’s Shreveport City Council meeting evidenced all the wrong things about ZOOM governmental meetings for many obvious reasons.

Initially, there were no valid reasons for the ZOOM meeting from the perspective of COVID health concerns.

All the persons sitting at the horseshoe in the chambers are divided by Plexiglass partitions. Each station is sanitized before the meetings. Speakers appearing before the council are separated by Plexiglass. The Plexiglass palace in the Government Plaza provides over-the-top protection against the viral spread of Covid.

Additionally, face masks are mandated in the building, and persons entering the chambers must have temperatures taken by a sophisticated temperature gauge before entering the chambers.

With all these measures, the Government Plaza chamber is one of the safest anti-virus locales in the city -- much more than the offices of health-care providers, shopping venues and business offices.

The only measure that needs to be taken is to socially distance the audience seats in the chambers. This was previously instituted by blocking off alternate rows and strapping seats to prevent seating. These measures could and should have been effectuated before the Tuesday meeting.

Additionally, the council considered many matters after moving that they were “time sensitive.” Most of these votes were not necessary and probably outside the scope of the executive order. Since there is no guidance on what is “time sensitive,” then that determination is whatever the council says it to be, and the determinations were inconsistent on several matters.

There are many disadvantages to these ZOOM meetings.

For starters, many citizens were unaware of the agenda change sent out on Monday that the meeting would be by ZOOM. Thus, they trooped downtown expecting a live meeting. The change in meeting procedures was valid as far as meeting the Open Meetings Law, although unsuspecting citizens and those without convenient internet access were left out in the cold.

Many citizens who attempted to send in written comments to be read at the meeting incurred internet/connection difficulties. Some citizens were patched in by telephone, and some written comments were read into the record. Those steps are not nearly effective as having “live” speakers addressing the council in person.

The Tuesday meeting also had many “screen freezes” with no sound and no body movement from those on the ZOOM screen. When this was corrected, it was uncertain if all of the comments during the screen freeze were then heard -- or missed.

Admittedly, it was refreshing not to hear some of the frequent flyer citizen speakers waste time on joke telling, discussing non-agenda items and presenting illogical statements that reflect ignorance. This ever-growing number of those seeking three minutes of fame is attributable in large part to this council’s change in the rules that allow all citizens’ comments before any real business is conducted.

The prior council rules limited comments at the beginning of the meeting to agenda items only, and non-agenda items were heard after the business of the council was concluded. Additionally, council members often violate the rules of procedure engaging speakers in conversations that are not merited and counter-productive to the meeting.

Bottom line: The meeting should have not been conducted by ZOOM. This meeting was a disservice to the citizens.

The council should be concerned about a legal challenge to future ZOOM meetings unless future governor’s executive orders become more stringent.

Note: SPAR has now implemented social distancing in the chambers.