Beaufort County Council abruptly scraps live Facebook meetings. Here’s why
Facing a string of negative comments, Beaufort County Council Chair Joe Passiment abruptly canceled plans to stream Monday night’s council meeting on Facebook.
The chairman’s decision — made just before the meeting started — left many residents and even some council members wondering why a segment of the public was being cut out of a government meeting with zero notice. Some were more outraged than confused.
“So county buildings are closed and council meetings are suppose to be public but they are not streaming the 6 pm meeting because they are feeling some heat? Thats the kind of cowards we have running the county,” Facebook user Troy Young commented Monday evening.
After seven months of using the social media site to stream meetings during the coronavirus pandemic, the chairman now says the council is moving away from the platform. Monday night’s meeting was streamed solely on the county’s streaming service The County Channel.
The decision was due to “derogatory” comments made about council members and staff, Passiment said. The county had already streamed a committee and caucus meeting on Facebook prior to cutting the council feed Monday evening.
“Things got a little out of hand,” he said. “Facebook is a social media platform. This is how people rant and rave. That’s not necessarily communicating to us.”
The bulk of the backlash from residents during public comment — and on Facebook — was related to the council’s handling of its former administrator’s resignation and a pending non-emergency face mask ordinance that did not have a prescribed ending date.
The county already has an emergency mask ordinance in place through Dec. 19.
The additional mask ordinance was pulled from the agenda Monday night after it received immense resistance online. The council instead plans to hold a workshop next month to hear from medical experts before it moves forward with any non-emergency mask rules.
As for Facebook, Passiment says the county will choose a different platform to stream meetings going forward. YouTube is on the table, he said.
The chairman initially did not say anything about cutting the feed until Council member Chris Hervochon asked why the meeting was not live on Facebook. Hervochon was against the decision.
“[Government meetings] should be on as many platforms as we can be on,” Hervochon said. “It allows [the public] to converse with each other in real time during the meeting. I think it’s a positive thing.”
Negative comments from constituents on social media? Hervochon said, “That’s part of the job.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 1:24 PM.
