Pandemic expanded access to local government
Before a dangerous virus upended the world in just a few months, the doings of local governments were comparatively sleepy affairs.
Sure, there had always been a steady drumbeat of complaints about roads, taxes, trash, more police or the school vacation schedule. Occasionally one controversy or another would rile residents to pack into a meeting room to let their voices be heard, but it was uncommon for anything to rise to the level of life or death.
With the arrival of COVID-19, the importance of local government sprang sharply into focus at exactly the same time health protocols limited our access to it.
Town halls were closed, schools were shuttered and it was local elected officials to whom so many turned for answers about what was opened, what was closed and where they could get help.
So, like so many other aspects of life in the last two years, local officials turned to technology.
Many now know the joys of a Zoom meeting, have likely filled out and filed some kind of government form or interaction online that formerly was done in person. Some of us even voted from home.
But it didn’t come easily, or naturally, to many.
And for some, the experience, however worth it, in the end, was dreadful.
It took a petition
Although many elected boards and commissions turned to remote meetings almost immediately two years ago, the Limerick Township supervisors resisted — fiercely — with some even refusing to wear masks at the meetings, this despite a sign on the door of the township building requiring them to do so.
Not until a citizen petition was submitted calling for remote livestreaming of the meetings did the supervisors relent.
And now, Limerick is one of Montgomery County’s most reliable broadcasters of public meetings and the supervisors are diligent about urging those at meetings to “speak into the mike or the people watching at home can’t hear you.”
“We definitely like the Livestream format (on Facebook). We think it’s a useful way to get information out to the people,” Township Manager Dan Kerr said.
“There was some reluctance among the commissioners, but once we got footing and we were sure we could secure it and control it, there was more acceptance,” he said. “Not all the commissioners have been happy with it, but I think it’s here for the foreseeable future.”
Although participation from those watching from home is not high, “it has certainly expanded our viewing audience.”
An easy decision
For Berks County commissioners, the decision came more easily and more quickly.
When they took their meetings online to adhere to social distancing guidelines during the height of the pandemic, they noted the positive feedback they received from residents who were now able to tune in from the comfort of their own homes or the convenience of their offices.
So the board decided to make the option permanent.
They installed audio and video equipment to allow the commissioners to continue streaming meetings on several platforms for those who wanted to participate virtually long after the social distancing guidelines were lifted.
Berks County Commissioners’ Chairman Christian Leinbach said the board viewed it as an investment in increasing public participation, acknowledging that most county meetings take place at a time when many across the county are toiling away at their jobs.
“We made the decision early on in the pandemic that even when we would come back to the boardroom we would continue the virtual component because we realized how convenient it is,” he said. “I think you’re going to find that most people will continue to participate virtually and this is all about increasing accessibility.”
Leinbach said that while the technology to stream meetings online has been around for quite a while, he believes one of the silver linings of the pandemic is that it forced people to engage with others in new ways.
“We noticed immediately that there was more participation,” he said. “When the meetings were only held in person we would have just a handful of comments. But, since the pandemic, it is not unusual to get as many as 10 or 12 comments.”
And while residents are now allowed back in the Berks County Services Center to attend meetings live, Leinbach said its online audience will continue to be able to submit comments through Microsoft Teams, Facebook and YouTube.
That announcement by Leinbach was lauded by two Berks County residents who are regular online commenters at the board meetings.
Wyomissing resident Crystal Kowalski said that while she plans to attend more meetings in person now that the number of COVID cases has declined significantly, she appreciates having the option to comment virtually when her schedule is packed.
“There are definitely some weeks where it just makes sense to catch the meeting virtually,” she said. “However, I do think you make more of an impact in person and reading your own comment is different than someone else reading it.”
Spring Township resident John Archer said he feels the commissioners should be commended for keeping the virtual option available for those who may have a difficult time fighting traffic and securing a parking spot in downtown Reading.
“This is much, much more convenient,” he said. “I probably only attended one or two meetings before the pandemic because of the inconvenience. Now, I rarely miss one.”
School boards
For many school boards, what the pandemic brought in terms of public-government interaction was, primarily, stress.
Remote viewership and participation skyrocketed, as did attendance at in-person meetings once that was allowed again. Several of those in-person meetings resulted in parents being escorted out by police as the rhetoric heated up.
At a time when some were perhaps losing their jobs or even just their sense of normalcy, having their children’s lives and education disrupted was the epitome of their frustration, and they expressed it to their elected officials on the school board.
Colleen Zasowski was the president of the Spring-Ford School Board during the most tumultuous of those times and her assessment of it is blunt: “It was dreadful. People said so many hurtful things, horrible things,” she said. “I sometimes thought they forgot we were just people doing the best we could.”
With federal, state and county health entities all shifting guidance constantly as the science about COVID progressed, “they pushed it down to us and people shot the messenger,” Zasowski said.
Although no one shot at her, Zasowski said there is a part of her that would not have been surprised if that had happened.
As it was, protesters came to her house to stand in the street and shout at her through bullhorns while she sat in the backyard and tried not to cry. A man who was hauled out of a Spring-Ford meeting by school police after becoming unruly lives close by “and my neighbors were really worried about me. Even my kids said ‘when you’re here, you’re not really here.’ ”
“You know, I understand. Everyone was at their wit’s end, but so were we. I have five kids, I’m the administrator for my husband’s business and I sell real estate and we do this for nothing, no pay,” Zasowski said. “Our primary goal through it all was to keep as many kids in school for as long as we could.”
Nonetheless, Zasowski said she still sees some positives coming out of the experience in terms of the citizenry.
“I think school boards are changed forever,” she said.
“I think a lot of people had no idea the impact a school board has, they didn’t understand the impact on their taxes or all the things we do. Whatever else you think about a school board, people understand a lot better now what we do,” she said.
She thought that might translate into a flood of candidates for the 2021 elections and in some cases, it did, resulting in large turnovers.
But it did not in Spring-Ford.
“I was like ‘where is everybody?’ ” Zasowski said. “All these people who were so critical of everything we did, who said they knew how to do it better, who told us we were wrong over and over again, why aren’t they running?”
While the pandemic may not have created a flood of candidates for a volunteer job with recently more obvious downsides, it did create large audiences for what they do.
“I think Zoom and remote meetings are the silver lining of COVID,” Zasowski said.
And despite the fact that the Zoom/YouTube hybrid platform the district used to communicate with the public was the delivery system for so much anger and outrage, she remains an ardent supporter.
Already using YouTube to broadcast the meetings live, Zasowski has fought to keep the system allowing remote public comment in place, and to continue its expanded use in committee meetings as well.
“Even if it is not a huge audience, and believe me, we had some huge audiences, there is so much data. There is so much information that has to be conveyed for people to understand the context of all the decisions we’re making,” she said. “We owe it to them and ourselves to do everything we can help the public understand.”
But she won’t be fighting that fight in a third term.
“I said before COVID that I would not run again,” Zasowski said, and the experience of the last two years has not changed her mind.
“It takes a toll,” she said, “it really does.”
At the other end of the spectrum, one of the few school boards to have the opposite experience was in Pottstown and there are few course corrections required.
The school board had undertaken the livestreaming not just of board meetings, but of committee meetings as well, at least two years before the pandemic changed everything.
It really paid off in terms of being able to reach the public quickly, said John Armato, director of public relations and a member of the school board.
“We were getting hundreds of people watching before COVID. The livestreaming model allows for a lot of engagement. It allows us to answer questions and put links for further information into the chat during the meeting,” he said. “And because it’s recorded, people can watch the meeting later on if they can’t make the live one.”
Planning for the future
If you live in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County, you can only see meetings in person, at least for now.
When the pandemic first hit and public buildings were closed, New Hanover cobbled together a way to broadcast meetings, which was literally Township Manager Jamie Gwynn holding a computer tablet in one hand while running the meeting with the other.
The sound was abysmal.
“At one point, I was enlisting volunteers to hold the tablet, but we didn’t want to hold back democracy,” Gwynn said.
But as soon as the public could return to in-person New Hanover meetings — which has a pretty large cohort of regulars in attendance — the broadcasts stopped, but not permanently.
New Hanover, Gwynn said, has the good fortune of a long-planned complete renovation of its township building in the works and planning for remote meeting coverage is being folded in.
The former township recreation building currently is being converted into a police station, and the township building, which once held both police and township offices, will then be given over entirely to the administration.
“What we did before was a quick fix, but we’re moving our meeting room to make it bigger and we’re planning on installing equipment to allow it to be accessible from home, we’re just not sure what yet,” said Gwynn.
“For example, I’m not convinced using Facebook is a good long-term solution,” said Gwynn.
“So we’re taking advantage of everyone’s experience right now, seeing what they do, what works best for them and might work best for us, what kind of policies they have in terms of public comment,” said Gwynn. “So when the time comes to install the equipment in the meeting room, we’ll be ready. Even if it just adds one person to the audience from home, that’s OK, it’s worth it.”
Limits on comments
The virtual option adopted by Reading City Council is a bit less interactive than some.
Though City Council is keeping an online option despite returning to in-person meetings, their public comment policy is more strict than many.
Similar to a new system being implemented at Pottstown Borough Council meetings, those wishing to comment virtually in Reading must register with the city clerk by noon on the day of meetings to be admitted into the meeting virtually during the public comment period.
And those not able to attend in any format can submit comments in writing by sending an email to the city council.
Council President Jeffrey Waltman said that while there is a benefit to allowing the public virtual access to meetings, being able to have people gather together in the same place once again is important.
“My preference is to have everyone in the same room,” he said. “It offers more comprehensive discussion. Certainly, technology served us well during the pandemic but the best way to do business is face-to-face.”
Waltman said that while he believes council members should be back together, he fully supports continuing to stream meetings on Facebook for residents who choose not to attend in person. The city has even invested in upgrading the sound system to enhance the streaming quality.
City Clerk Linda Kelleher told the council at a recent meeting that the streaming option allows more people to participate, noting that virtual meetings typically draw 400 to 600 viewers and reached as many as 1,600 during the height of the pandemic.
Tuning out
But for some, virtual meetings just don’t work, either for the officials or the public — like in North Coventry Township. Although it was not for lack of trying.
“When the shutdown first came, we were one of the first townships to have our meeting on Zoom and we had great turnout, like 50 people,” said supervisors Chairman Jim Marks. “They weren’t participating, just watching.”
But soon enough, they weren’t even doing that.
“It dwindled quickly, and soon we just had an audience in the mid-20s, including the board itself and staff,” said Marks.
“In terms of public access, it was not too much response. We feel the meetings are better in person than on Zoom, even if we’re reaching fewer people,” said Marks.
“We looked into buying the equipment to do it better, but it was cost-prohibitive,” he said. “You know what they say, if people aren’t coming to the meetings, they must be happy.”
Secondary impacts
Other lessons came out of the pandemic for local governments as well. Kerr said Limerick became much more efficient and tech-savvy at getting the public’s work done online.
“I’m old school. I like to do business face-to-face,” Kerr said. “But with technology we have now, I have to say it’s a great way to do it. And we have some young minds here in the township building who are helping us with this, so that’s good.”
For example, Kerr said, “Greta Washington, our codes and zoning person found when COVID hit that PennDOT was very efficient and we were able to use their system for permits and information. They had good technology.”
That’s right, PennDOT.
As a result, when putting the 2022 budget together, Kerr said the township decided it was time to make an investment in tech.
“We’re better funded for technology than we ever have been before in the past two years. We have better interactions for other agencies and the public with information on GIS systems and we’ve made investments in that technology.”
“I think we’re really well-positioned going forward,” Kerr said, “and I’m not sure we would be where we are now if not for COVID.”
MediaNews Group Staff Writer Karen Shuey contributed to this article.
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