Haines Borough Mayor Jan Hill is trying to limit when assembly members can teleconference into a meeting.
At the body’s Feb. 23 meeting, three assembly members called in: Ron Jackson, George Campbell and Tresham Gregg. Jackson was out of town and had given prior notice, but Campbell and Gregg weren’t feeling well and called in from their homes.
Hill said the meeting was “incredibly difficult to manage.”
“It was hard to hear people voting, (and) it was hard to hear people’s requests to be heard,” Hill said.
It also costs money whenever the borough needs to set up a teleconference, and Hill said she is looking into just how much it costs.
She also referenced the section of code that deals with teleconferencing: “Attendance at regular and special assembly meetings by long-distance teleconferencing may be utilized to establish a quorum for voting or to allow attendance by an absent assembly member at the member’s request, providing costs of long-distance teleconference are borne by the assembly member unless prior arrangements are made.”
“I believe the intent of this part of code is that assembly members who are out of town can call in. I’m going to ask that if you just aren’t feeling well and can’t make it to the meeting that you stay home and rest and get well instead of calling in when you’re in town,” Hill said.
Resident Mike Denker bristled at Hill’s interpretation of “absent” to mean “out of town.”
“I don’t think we can do that type of interpretation. I don’t think it works for us as a community,” Denker said. “We have to define the term ‘absent’ a little bit clearer.”
Assembly member Campbell also opposed the definition. “Respectfully, madam Mayor, it’s an assembly meeting. We the assembly can make the decision if we want to allow people to call in or not,” he said. “The code allows me to call in.”
What if someone’s car breaks down, Campbell asked, or some other factor prevents them from making it to the assembly chambers?
“Respectfully, I’ll do my best to be here in person, but I think the idea of limiting and saying if you can’t physically be here, you can’t attend, that’s going to end us up back in court.”
Assembly member Jackson said he understood it must have been difficult to run a meeting with three people on teleconference, but he found it “offensive” and “really petty” that the borough would charge him to call in.