Brentwood Mayor Joel Bryant talks about Zoom, hate comments during council meeting, free speech and more as the council discusses how to address zoom callers spewing hatred. Agenda Item Preview: https://contracosta.news/2023/10/06/brentwood-set-to-discuss-future-of-public-comments/ taff is asking the council to provide direction of how it wishes to move forward with the use of virtual platforms. This comes after during its Sept. 26 meeting, subjected to vile, racist, and offensive comments from anonymous public participants virtually through what is described as a “zoom attack” or “zoom bomb.” Brentwood came out this week where they condemned the attack. Other cities have had to deal with Zoom public commenting where the City of Antioch rejected a proposal to bring back zoom, El Cerrito suspended zoom public commenting, while Walnut Creek announced it was ending zoom commenting. During its Sept. 26 meeting, staff was able to mute speakers because those using hate speech were not talking on the specific agenda item—if they were able to speak during general public comments, they would be unable to mute the virtual participate. According to the staff report, currently, the City Council allows public comment to occur both in person and virtually through Zoom. The vast majority of these recent verbal attacks across the state and country have occurred virtually, not in person. The City is not required to offer public participation via Zoom or any other virtual platform when public meetings are taking place in person. Virtual participation was instituted during the early days of the pandemic, when it was judged unsafe to meet in person and the public needed a way to participate; it has been carried over as a courtesy as public meetings have resumed and the pandemic has waned. ➥➥➥ SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS ➥➥➥ Never miss a video from ECT. Subscribe ⇢ http://eastcountytoday.net/subscribe For more news and information: http://eastcountytoday.net/