Council to revisit rules for Zoom public comment Play

The Malibu City Council will once again debate tonight how to handle public comment coming in via remote connections from the computer service Zoom. The council will consider making people register in order to speak via remote. It's not clear what exactly that would entail.

Two city council members, Bruce Silverstein and Steve Uhring, have been targeted by several men on a mission. They have called in, meeting after meeting, to personally and in some cases unfairly attack Silverstein and Uhring. Those men have given various fake names. But they have a constitutional right to do that.

And a new state law is apparently on their side too. The law requires that people calling in to comment via Zoom be provided the same opportunities as those present in the council chambers.

Well — what does the council do about its policy of allowing people inside the chambers to donate time to their speakers? The staff says it is difficult to verify whether individuals deferring time online are real, distinct participants. So the city council has limited time deferrals to those attending in person to prevent administrative challenges and potential abuse. Can't do that under the new law.

Staff is also refining the procedures to use the "raise hand" feature in Zoom to take public comment. The staff says they want to better document the remote speaker signups. That raises obvious potential red flags — there is nothing in state law or the U.S. Constitution that allows the city council to require documentation for public speakers.

And the city staff recommends that the public be required to submit all written comments and presentation materials three business days in advance of the hearing.