Rock County citizens voiced their displeasure with the Rock County Board of Supervisors on the virtual board meeting Thursday 9/24/2020 (video below).
Citizens made it clear that it is time for the Supervisors to stop hiding at home behind their computers and return to in-person meetings immediately. The frustration and distrust felt by members of the public for the Board of Supervisors was clear during public comment.
Virtual meetings negatively affect seniors, the technologically challenged, people without smartphones or modern computers, and individuals without high speed internet access and they actively discourage citizen participation.
Zoom or other virtual meetings also lend themselves to very unprofessional behavior. You can see board members eating, talking to people off camera, and possibly even sleeping. For some board members, their irritation with public comment is palpable.
Calls without video are worse. For the board members without video, who knows if they are listening or even in the room. They could be in their pajamas watching Netflix and eating ice cream during the meeting. In-person meetings demand a level of professionalism that virtual meetings just cannot provide.
Many Rock County citizens have called Supervisor Chair Kara Purviance on the phone and have not received a satisfactory reply.
According to the members of the public that have spoken to Ms. Purviance, she claims the board members are simply ‘not comfortable’ meeting in person. During the zoom meeting, she did note that a survey about in-person meetings was sent out to the board members but not all of them have returned the survey.
There is, of course, nothing in the Wisconsin Open Meeting Law that refers to an elected official’s ‘comfort level’ with meetings. Open meetings law does require however that “all meetings of all state and local governmental bodies shall be publicly held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public and shall be open to all citizens at all times.”
According to the WI Open Meeting Law Compliance Guide relating to Wisconsin Open Meetings law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.81–19.98) ” transparency is the cornerstone of democracy and that citizens cannot hold elected officials accountable in a representative government unless government is performed in the open.”
According to the Compliance Guide, “The requirement that meeting locations be reasonably accessible to the public and open to all citizens at all times means that governmental bodies must hold their meetings in rooms that are reasonably calculated to be large enough to accommodate all citizens who wish to attend the meetings.”
Open meeting law does not specifically reference zoom meetings but it does specifically reference room size. If the current meeting room for the Board is not large enough to accommodate the board and members of the public, a larger space should be found.
There are plenty of gymnasiums and auditoriums in Rock County that would work nicely. “Any doubt as to whether a meeting facility is large enough to satisfy the requirement should be resolved in favor of holding the meeting in a larger facility.” [Compliance Guide]
This is a volatile time and citizens are watching their freedoms and liberties being removed at a record pace. Furthermore, the WCA (Wisconsin Counties Association) is a group that ‘advises the counties on action’ and many counties blindly take their advice whether or not it’s in the public’s best interest.
Examples of current WCA recommended action include giving health officers police powers to enter homes and remove people without a warrant. That has not been proposed in Rock yet, but it has been in many Wisconsin counties at the behest of the WCA.
The WCA is a corporate interest group and does not have the best interest of the citizens of Wisconsin in mind at all. Citizens have a need to watch their county board like a hawk and it is essential that citizens have the ability to use their voice to counter the ‘advice of the WCA’ and to question any other unlawful or unconstitutional mandates dictated to the public.
To make matters worse, the Rock County Public Meeting’s YouTube channel, which started in March of 2020, disabled comments to further underscore their commitment to avoiding public discourse and comment.
You can always comment on Rock County Action’s YouTube channel. We will do our best to livestream the Board meetings on Facebook and post the recording to our channel for anyone to comment.
Members of the public can currently make public comment at the Rock County Board of Supervisors meetings by emailing their comment by noon on the day of the meeting. The comment is then read by the County Clerk into the record. This reading of the comments removes the passion and emotion felt by the writer of the comment.
When asked why the public cannot call into the meeting via zoom and make their comment live on zoom, Purviance said making direct comment is an option but the form to sign up has been left off of the agendas since July. Purviance did make sure it was added to the agenda but it was already after noon on the day of the meeting.
The Rock County Board of Supervisors meets twice a month on the second and fourth Thursday at 6pm. You can now submit your comment or sign up to speak live by using this form. Comments are limited to 40 minutes and speakers have up to 2 minutes to make their comment.
Comments read into record at the meeting and posted on social media from the public about in-person meetings:
“I feel the Rock County Board of Supervisors is intentionally trying to silence us and keep us from making our voices heard by refusing to meet in-person”
“With all the important issues concerning every day life for our citizens, it should be a priority to include their input in a comfortable way. I am sure in your daily life you move about the community. You already require masks and distancing. Do you feel you need more protection? What would that be”
“I have talked to several people who are technology challenged who want to attend but see zoom as a barrier to this.”
“If my five year old can stay six feet apart and wear a mask covering for school each day, I have no doubt adults can do as well.”
“I rarely use a laptop and don’t plan on buying a new one just to attend Rock County board meetings. I don’t understand why people can’t attend the meetings and sit a few feet apart. We need new board members.“
Comments from individuals that watched the meeting online:
“ It honestly sounds like someone had cricket noise in the background of their video. But it also feels very symbolic of the responses of all of those people on the screens 😅”
“I get irritated watching the meeting when the one gal (Danette Rynes) is either eating, fixing or putting her hair up, or holding her dog. (Every meeting, not just a one time event). It is extremely distracting.”
“You could see Yuri chatting with someone else off screen. They have to act like professionals in person.”
“Wes Davis literally looks asleep.“
Public Comment Section of the Rock County Board of Supervisors Meeting 9/24
Full video transcript:
I don’t see any of the three people who signed up
So then I will go to reading them
Lisa maybe we can come back to that after we are done reading in case anyone is just joining us a little late
OK, we can do that
Thank you
We had several that wrote in so we’ll start with those
The first one is Michael Zoril. Please have the board start meeting again in person immediately.
The next one is from James Stevens. Good day. Hope you are all doing well. To be brief, my request is simple. Return to open public meetings before the next scheduled meeting in October 2020. Continuing online meetings actually restricts public access. The app is glitchy and isn’t a reliable tool. Your constituents deserve to see all of you in person. Closed door meetings are disingenuous, eliminate transparency, and lead to nothing positive.
The next one is from Tana Fauske. I am against extending the mask mandate. However, if it is extended businesses need to be reminded that many who are medically exempt due to disabilities are also hearing impaired. If it is extended, please remind businesses that some customers rely on lip reading to understand what is being spoken. So if we ask you to lower your mask and you are behind Plexiglas, please do so.
The next one is from William Uffenbeck. I respectfully request that you return to in person meetings immediately. Millions of workers from all spectrums are able to daily attend work for full shifts without issue. So there shouldn’t be any problems with this.
The next one is from Christine Raleigh. Thank you for your continued efforts in serving our community and for providing the chance for public to comment. I would like to bring up the topic of in person meetings. Please return to an in person format. Considering the Covid-19 prevention measures currently in place, there should be no reason physical in-person meetings cannot resume. I truly believe in person meetings are important in allowing for the general public to take part and feel involved in the things happening in the county. It gives community members a chance to have their voices heard and also allows for transparency with what is happening in our county during these hard times.
The next one is from Gretel Grinvalds. Why are there no in person meetings? Bars, grocery stores, and restaurants are all open. Secondly, why are you allowing unelected health officials to issue mandates? Thirdly, why is there a need for a mask mandate? It would seem that personal responsibility and where a citizen is comfortable with on this issue retains liberty.
The next one’s from Kim Hendricks. When will the Rock County Board be resuming in person meetings? It is much harder to follow the information on zoom and stifled conversations. With all the important issues concerning every day life for our citizens, it should be a priority to include their input in a comfortable way. I am sure in your daily life you move about the community. You already require masks and distancing. Do you feel you need more protection? What would that be? Please consider reinstating in person meetings and public input. Thank you.
The next one is from Gina Dummer. I asked a question like this at our last meeeting stating that I was looking forward to a response back and I did not receive one. I am concerned that the patrons of Rock County are not getting heard. I am concerned that due to these board meetings not being open to the public and in person to attend, us the public that you are representing are given no regard or concerns to our questions. You are given these roles for a reason and a part of that reason is to make sure you are listening to the residents of Rock County. I am again asking, what is the reason that Rock County Board meetings are not in person? There is a way to meet in person safely. If my five year old can stay six feet apart and wear a mask covering for school each day, I have no doubt adults can do as well. Thank you in advance for your response.
Marilyn, did you see any of the other three come in?
No, I did not.
Oh, just a moment. We do have Jen Sorbe. I think is the name.
Can you unmute Jen?
Jen, would you like to speak?
Hi,
Go ahead Jen. You have two minutes.
My whole thing is just questioning when we are going to get back to the public forum. That’s my question. I’m really curious about that because there are people that I know that I know that have been voicing concerns just about things in general and whats going on and I said you should really get involved or go in to a meeting and they said, I don’t really understand how to do that or I don’t really understand how to get on a call or for instance, last time I joined a meeting with you guys, maybe it was a month ago, I don’t remember and the trouble with it was that there was no opportunity. My question was read but there was no opportunity to be part of the public forum. Comments were blocked on the YouTube so we couldn’t even have conversation amongst ourselves and it feels, it feels like it is such a separatist situation right now and I feel like we can’t connect with you guys and you can’t connect with us and I have been to numerous restaurants and I see people doing business and thinking that it’s time for our own community and you guys to start doing business so we can show up and participate, hear what you have to say, you can hear what we have to say. That’s something that I am really hopeful that we can accomplish in short order.
I don’t need the full two minutes so that was my thing. You can come back to me for Tom.
OK, Board Members, I wanted to make the following comments regarding Rock County policy in regards to Covid. Number 1, public in person meetings. I would like to ask that we return to in person meetings. I have talked to several people who are technology challenged who want to attend but see zoom as a barrier to this. What is the plan on returning?
Number 2, Mask Mandates. I saw that health was going to issue a mask mandate for Rock County at least if the governor’s order gets lifted. What has changed since we were told that un-elected health could not make those kinds of decisions without specific legislative approval?
Number 3, Numbers used to push mask mandates. Are you aware and is Mrs Sandoval aware that secretary designee Palm has been playing with the numbers to produce artificially high positive counts? In a story reported this week, DHS has been removing negative numbers of people that have tested negative at a previous date. And only using new people to test in her calculations to determine the positive ratio that is driving all the call for mask mandates. For instance, on September 15th, Wisconsin tested 200,000 people for Covid. About 1,300 of those returned positive. You would think that would give us a positive rate of about 6% but DHS dropped 8,000 negative tests because they were for people who had been tested before giving us a positive rate closer to 12%. This has been going on for some time. Why are we using rigged data to make Covid numbers worse than they are? Were any of you aware that this was going on? Since Sandoval has been using Palm’s data, she either has to know or did not divulge it. Will there be any consequences for this manipulation? I was told by one of the board members that we were following ‘the science’. When I went to school we were never allowed to change the data to arrive at a conclusion. That is not science. The ready science is that eight weeks of statewide masking has led us to double digit positive increases according to the numbers health is using. So which is it? Are we using the rigged data which shows the mask mandate has failed or are we going with the actual data which shows no need for a mandate? I know you don’t answer these questions live but I want an answer on this. Thank you and I look forward to your responses and I asked him to just give me some information on just where he was getting this information from and the mcgiver institute. you can just go on their recent post and you will find it at that point on there. He asks, I wonder how long you guys, or whoever these people are doing this, stopped counting the second negative of tests. This affects the negative vs positive ratio so if the negatives are being removed from the ratios then multiple positives are showing up, you’re not getting an accurate ratio. September 13, 20,000 were tested, 1,300 were positive up against 12,000. He says that he has a nurse friend who has tested three times. This nurse friend has stated that only his first test was documented because all three of them were negative. If it was positive, it would have been counted. This skews the results ultimately. He says he does believe in science but all the info needs to be in there in order for it to be accurate and he would like you guys to follow up. Tom Nelson and if you can follow up with some answers on those three questions. Thank you.
Thank you Jen.
“If you are a public official, it’s only proper to follow the guidelines that the public is expected to follow.”
