ST. MICHAELS 鈥 St. Michaels commissioners announced live Zoom meetings for the town government would be 鈥渄iscontinued for the foreseeable future鈥 after second security incident in 2025.
Both incidents involved disruptions caused by meeting attendees, town officials said.
鈥淏oth the February and June incidents were the same or similar with intentions of disrupting the open format forum,鈥 Town Manager Don Richardson said in a email to the Star Democrat on Tuesday. 鈥淎 Zoom attendee took control of the screen and displaying an indecent video clip along with hate text. They also took control of audio playing loud sounds and noises. Staff caught this quickly, shut down the online display, and the Historic District Commission completed the meeting as schedule.
鈥淥n Friday, the town issued the Constant Contact to notify the public that meeting participation would be changing to keep our town meeting safe and accessible.鈥
The announcement came after the June 5 meeting, where the Zoom feed was interrupted. Commissioners President Alfred Mercier described the contents of the video displayed by the person disrupting the meeting as 鈥減ropaganda associated with foreign countries and explicit graphic presentations of individuals.鈥
鈥淭his came with a lot of thought because we certainly want full transparency in what we present and how we present to the town, and we certainly want to be cognizant of the fact that everything that we present and the information that we display out there needs to be communicated effectively to our to our residents,鈥 Mercier said to the Star Democrat on Tuesday.
St. Michaels is not the only town that have stopped Zoom meetings, the Town of Greensboro also stopped recording meetings via Zoom after an incident in February.
鈥淭hese graphic obscenities that have have been occurring not only in St. Michaels, but in many towns throughout the U.S., have presented a challenge for a lot of these towns,鈥 Mercier said.
St. Michaels plans to record the meetings as they occur and to have a question and answer session for residents to ask questions. Town officials are currently looking for more secure softwares to conduct town meetings.
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