Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Peake has decided to end Zoom call-ins to meetings two weeks after an organized group of white supremacists call-bombed a P.G. City Council meeting.
The hateful Zoom calls have become a problem for cities around California, and so far have recently impacted Monterey, Pacific Grove and Seaside.
In Pacific Grove it's back to the pre-pandemic days where anyone who wants to provide public comment, either by showing up in person or relying on emailed comments ahead of city meetings.
An announcement on Oct. 27 on the city's website says public comment received by noon the day of a meeting at publiccomment@cityofpacificgrove.org will be posted with the corresponding agenda item. The next meeting is 6pm, this Wednesday, in Pacific Grove City Hall, 300 Forest Ave.
The Monterey City Council—the first council in the county to be hit with the hate speech-laden calls in September—has chosen to stick with Zoom participation, after hearing public comments about it at a special meeting on Oct. 11.
In a staff presentation by Assistant City Manager Nat Rojanasathira, he prefaced his report by reminding council that hate speech is protected under the First Amendment.
"It is unfortunately easier for folks to spew hate speech online because they can be anonymous, they can use whatever name they want and there aren't ways to restrict that," he said.
Monterey councilmembers voiced their concern for doing away with Zoom calls, because allowing them has reduced barriers for people to participate in public meetings.
Monterey City Attorney Christine Davi said the council—or any board or commission—could warn callers to remain on topic, then if the callers do not remain on topic, they could be cut off. She warned councilmembers that they cannot cut off speakers because they do not like the content of the speech.
Davi also said that comments can be limited in time, which could shorten how long the council and the public would have to "endure" hateful comment.
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