Advisory boards lobby for virtual meetings

The Downtown Sarasota Condominium Association is also asking the governor’s office to allow the city’s volunteer boards to meet remotely during the pandemic.

By David Conway
| 6:00 a.m. January 28, 2021

The Planning Board is holding hybrid meetings where a majority attends in person, but two members participate remotely. The city said access to hybrid meetings is dependent on staff availability. Image via city of Sarasota.

Sarasota
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Last spring, the City Commission and its advisory boards began to hold meetings via videoconferencing as a safety precaution following the emergence of COVID-19 in the community.

Although municipal bodies are usually required to have an in-person quorum to take any action — meaning one more than half of the members must be physically present — Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order in March permitting remote meetings.

That order expired at the end of October, which meant the city’s boards had to resume in-person meetings. Although the City Commission has resumed its business with a hybrid system that allows two members to continue to appear remotely, the in-person requirements have caused problems for the city’s volunteer advisory boards.

In December, the city’s Planning Board had to delay several items after a majority of the board declined to meet for more than two hours, citing COVID-19 concerns. Following a November meeting of the Police Complaint Committee, one of the nine people seated at the table tested positive for COVID-19, requiring the board to quarantine for 14 days.

In January, the Parks, Recreation and Environmental Protection Board unanimously voted to send a letter to the governor’s office encouraging DeSantis to allow the volunteer boards to continue to meet remotely. Board Chair Carl Shoffstall noted the statewide COVID-19 positivity rate hovered above 10% for most of January, meaning the coronavirus continued to spread even as vaccinations began.

The city's parks board met in-person earlier this month, but it intends to ask the governor’s office to allow virtual meetings while the pandemic is still ongoing. Image via city of Sarasota.

Shoffstall, 64, said he didn’t see any problem with the remote meeting software the city used while COVID-19 restrictions were in place last year. On a personal level, Shoffstall said he was relatively vulnerable and would prefer to eliminate unnecessary risks, particularly now that the vaccination effort is underway.

“I don’t want to get this thing right at the end of it when there’s the potential in the next couple of months we might get on the plus side of things,” Shoffstall said.

The Downtown Sarasota Condominium Association also sent a letter to DeSantis on Jan. 15 asking him to allow virtual meetings. DSCA President Eileen Normile, who previously served on the Planning Board, said there was no reason to jeopardize the well-being of people who were volunteering their time, even if the city had implemented some safety precautions.

“Why are you putting these people at risk at all?” Normile said.