Council votes to return meetings to YouTube

Cathlamet City Council meetings have been available via Zoom and, until recently, on YouTube following the proceedings. During the March 3 session, Mayor David Olson, Cathlamet City Councilmembers and the public discussed the possibility of bringing the sessions back up on YouTube. Citing a prepared address to begin the topic, Mayor Olson said, "The recording and archiving of video recordings at Town Council has never been an official Town's means of communication to which citizens are entitled... No other governing body of Wahkiakum County maintains a clickable archive of video recordings at its meetings...The Town is an outlier in doing this. My view is this was a temporary experiment which has notably failed because it's not being used for transparency. It's being used as essentially an armory for attacks on the Town."

Olson went on to say that "in numerous instances, false information on current Town issues has been posted repeatedly on social media and amplified again and again." Olson claimed portions of the YouTube videos were "cherry picked" to go on social media. "I am a great believer in transparency but I am not a believer in disinformation," said Olson.

With the discussion over to public comment, resident Crystal Baker said, "The videos are the only way that I can catch up and watch meetings that I've missed...Honestly, I would say having that link has encouraged flexibility...I've seen more people step up and want to be a part of this town and want to visually watch you guys and participate. These numbers didn't happen before. This happened because people were able to tap into it during the week."

Resident Megan Blackburn Friend, who noted "she personally hadn't seen pieces of video cherry picked," said, "I find the recordings beneficial, and I think the transparency is a good thing. You're setting a good example. Rather than take that away, continue it."

Resident Bill Peterson said, "I think we should celebrate that we're setting a trend that hopefully will be followed. To suggest that we should give this up until the other agencies do it is like saying we should give up on supporting women's rights until Afghanistan starts to support women's rights."

Admittedly offering a different take in her public comment, Puget Island resident Marty Vavoudis said, "The minutes are not quite reflective of the meeting....I know what it's like to be there, and I'm not going to advocate that you continue to allow recordings. What I'm going to advocate for is that your minutes truly reflect the meeting so that when we do read them, we do feel like we attended the meeting. Because when I read them, I wonder sometimes, 'Was that the same meeting I was at last night?'"

The discussion now being turned over to the Council, Robert Stowe addressed Mayor Olson specifically about taking down the YouTube channel, saying, "Taking it down without talking to Council at the very least, quite frankly, I do not understand why you did it. It doesn't cost anything... It shows transparency, and for you to take it down unilaterally without asking anybody to take it down, it seems to me that you're afraid of something. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but that's what the perception is."

Comparing YouTube with other social media outlets, Councilmember Kermit Chamberlin said, "On Facebook, when somebody posts something about what's going on in the town, you immediately lose control of what follows, and there have been times when some of that stuff has gotten untruthful, nasty, vitriolic, and the person who starts it chooses not to do anything to control (it.)... One of the realities of our meetings are that we as councilmembers are constrained by rules of decorum. People sitting in these chairs and on that screen have first amendment rights and they can use any language they want...They don't have to be truthful. They don't have to quote sources. They are able to present whatever they want."

Agreeing with Vavoudis that meeting minutes should be "more robust," Councilmember Laurel Waller claimed she "was not happy" about the videos being posted on social media. "We can pretend like YouTube is not social media if we want to, but it has grown up to be social media," said Waller. "If somebody takes it and pushes it someplace, that's how the world works right now, but I don't think that meetings should find a place on social media to be our hub."

Waller then suggested the videos be posted on the Town website, claiming "there's value in having it."

With all councilmembers having shared their thoughts, Stowe, motioning on the matter, said, "I move to have Town zoom video be restored to social media it was previously posted upon until and unless it becomes possible to place said videos on the Town's server website to help facilitate transparency within the town and county."

With the present councilmembers all offering an "aye" vote, the motion passed unanimously.