Beaufort’s City Council won’t read Facebook comments at meetings any more. Why?
The City of Beaufort is eliminating one of the ways members of the public can make comments during virtual City Council meetings, officials announced Monday. Starting Tuesday, comments left on the Facebook meeting livestreams will not be read during the designated public comment section as they have been since the pandemic began, but those wishing to make their voices heard still have several options.
Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray said City Council decided to make this change after struggling to address all the comments viewers would leave during meetings on Facebook. When they weren’t able to address everyone’s comments, some viewers would get frustrated, he said.
“When we first started, there were very few people participating,” Murray said. ”With a handful of comments, it was fairly easy to address each of them and check in at the end of each issue to go through them. But when there’s 30 to 40 questions on each issue or statement that are just thrown out there, it’s very difficult to address all of them, and it’s become quite a distraction in the meeting.”
Additionally, Murray said, having public comment through Facebook created problems for maintaining a public record of the meetings, with speakers’ full names and addresses.
“You’re required to be on the record, and again for the record, we’d like to know where your address is,” Murray said. “It’s hard to do that with just Facebook comments, because folks were able to create anonymous profiles and just post whatever they want on there. That being said, we also want to make it easy for people to participate and for people to have the opportunity to be heard.”
Now, those wishing to comment publicly can speak in the Zoom meeting, call into the meeting off Zoom or email city clerk Ivette Burgess at iburgess@cityofbeaufort.org. The Zoom link and call-in number can be found in the council agendas on the City of Beaufort’s website. The Zoom link will also be posted in the Facebook comments section at the beginning of the meeting.
Beaufort City Council meets for a work session at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Its regular meeting follows at 7 p.m.
