As in-person meetings return more than three-and-a-half years after Covid forced local city councils, commissions and boards to govern online, virtual options for participation have dwindled. But i…
As in-person meetings return more than three-and-a-half years after Covid forced local city councils, commissions and boards to govern online, virtual options for participation have dwindled.
Privacy and safety concerns raised by this policy came to a head last week, when three members of Berkeley’s Commission on Disability filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, arguing that the requirement has created new dangers, especially for older, disabled and immunocompromised people — oftentimes the ones who rely on virtual options the most..
So far, city officials have stood behind their position that their legislative hands are tied and cannot waive the requirement, “even as an accommodation for a person with a disability,” according to the lawsuit. While the plaintiffs say numerous cities across California have meeting stipulations similar to Berkeley’s, this hasn’t been such a difficult problem to solve on the other side of the Bay Bridge.has interpreted public meeting requirements differently.
Jinny Kim, an attorney with Disability Rights Advocates who is representing the three Berkeley commissioners, said disability accommodations should be addressed through the ADA, regardless of any state laws like the Brown Act. Instead, she said Berkeley — the birthplace of the modern disability rights movement — continues to blindly enforce strict rules about who and how they will accommodate members of a commission that is dedicated to advancing disability rights locally.
As it stands, Pugh said the policy is so unpopular that it’s complicating efforts to recruit more people to the long-dormant commission, which she joined in April, especially since meetings are often at night. The city has offered to ease these concerns by paying a staffer to help monitor the meeting at their address, but Pugh said she thinks that’s an unnecessary, costly solution for an advisory board such as the Commission on Disability.
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