The Orange City Council and other local legislative bodies are no longer reading written public comments aloud at meetings. Instead, for those who want their voices to be heard during virtual city council meetings, the public is limited to giving comments in-person in the city council chambers — despite the fact that it has been 11 months since the council last met for an in-person session. This change was established Feb. 9 as a result of community dissatisfaction with not being allowed to give public comments in person, said Orange Mayor Pro Tem Kim Nichols. 

Community members can still send in public comments via mail, email or voicemail to the Orange City Council, which Orange Mayor Mark Murphy emphasized will continue to be distributed to the council and acknowledged by each member. However, written comments will no longer be read aloud, nor will recordings be played during the meeting.

“People think that if they send an email to the city council that somehow it's not read or it doesn't have the same impact,” Murphy told The Panther. “I can't vouch for everybody, but for the vast majority of council members I've served with, they do their homework; they spend their time reading everything they can read.”

The new policy has only been in place for the past two Orange City Council meetings Feb. 9 and Feb. 16, as well as the Orange Planning Commission meeting Feb. 17. Only a handful of speakers have shown up at meetings to provide a comment. 

Orange County remains classified under the purple “widespread” tier of the COVID-19 county watchlist, with 20.7 positive COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. With the perpetual threat of the coronavirus pandemic still present, District 1 Orange City Council member Arianna Barrios suggested that many Orange County residents may be wary about giving public comments in-person.

“Requiring people to come physically in-person at a time when we are still in the purple tier and when the council is still not in chambers — it begs incredulity that that was the answer we came up with,” Barrios told The Panther. “I absolutely think that we can do better. The question has been raised on numerous occasions, and I think that we’ll keep trying.”

Since the seven Orange City Council members are attending meetings remotely, public commenters do not have the opportunity to address the council directly. The speakers address a camera set up in the council chambers, and the council can see and hear the speaker through the teleconference meeting.

“We are seeing them; we just aren't present in the room,” Nichols told The Panther. “We can’t help that … We are all over this and we would much prefer being in the council chambers, seeing the people face-to-face and hearing their comments. That absolutely is the best way to do this, but we have health concerns and safety concerns.”

Other than a brief delay due to a microphone malfunction, the Feb. 16 Orange City Council meeting proceeded as normal, seemingly unaffected by the change in public comment proceedings.

The Anaheim City Council recently made a similar change, although instead of council members remaining fully remote like in Orange, four Anaheim City Council members have been attending meetings in person. Only three have been joining remotely.

“Rather than go back to teleconferencing, what we want to do is start working toward a path toward normalcy,” said Mike Lyster, Anaheim’s chief communications officer. “The goal is to eventually, once it is safe and responsible to do so, begin allowing the public back in the chambers and going back to where we were before the pandemic.”

Since the Anaheim City Council members have the option to attend meetings in person, speakers give their comments on a microphone in an adjacent room to the council chambers. In Orange, speakers enter the council chamber itself since no sitting members are physically present. In both cities, speakers are asked to leave the building after their comment and watch the rest of the meeting online to avoid large gatherings.