Cornonavirus might have locked the doors of city hall, but it has flung open a new virtual platform for government officials throughout Alabama.

From rural Washington County to the Birmingham City Council, real-time meetings can be accessed online at almost any time by the taxpaying public. Whether the platform is Zoom, Facebook Live, or through other online channels or audio recordings, the documentation of Alabama public meetings has arguably reached its all-time high point in the past month.

But will the surge of transparency stick? Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s office is hopeful, and the head of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama wants to see state law tweaked to encourage virtual access during times of crisis.

Some longtime followers of state government are skeptical that the changes will stick in a state where government transparency can be frustrating.

“Being able to watch government meetings on your computer through Zoom or some other platform is a welcome change, but I expect most city councils and county commissions will drop the online access as soon as they return to in-person meetings,” said Phillip Rawls, a journalism professor at Auburn University. “The attitude is: If you want to know what we are going to do, come to the meeting.”

Array of access

North Alabama government leaders modeled "social distance" March 16, 2020 as they met for a press conference on the coronavirus COVID-19. From left are Madison Mayor Paul Finley, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Huntsville City Council President Devyn Keith, Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers and Col. Kelsey Smith, garrison commander at Redstone Arsenal. Heading to the podium in the center is Jeff Birdwell, director of the Emergency Management Agency of Huntsville-Madison County.

For now, though, the array of access is noticeable. Examples include:

-Daphne, the second largest city in Coastal Alabama, is broadcasting council meetings for the first time. The meetings are available on Facebook. The city, which is expected to resume committee meetings in the coming weeks, could be putting those meetings online as well.

-Gulf Shores, for the first time, is also broadcasting meetings on Facebook. City officials are looking at ways to continue with the online broadcasts once the pandemic is over.

-The Mobile City Council has long broadcast its regular council meetings every Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. But the pre-conference sessions, often juicier meetings that tend to spark lively debates among council members, are not. Within the past month, those pre-conference sessions are now available on the city’s website.

-Government bodies in Clark and Washington counties in Southwest Alabama have never broadcast meetings online before. But longtime Clarke County journalist Jim Cox said a host of those governing bodies have moved their regular sessions online. “Overall, I say we are doing pretty well given the circumstances,” Cox said.

-The city of Auburn has long broadcast its meetings, but the recent Zoom sessions – which allow council members to attend from the comfort of their own homes – are giving the public opportunity to chime in. People who want to speak can do so by pressing *9 on their cell phone before talking.

-Montgomery and Daphne have also implemented call-in numbers allowing the public to participate. Montgomery City Council meetings have long been broadcast on cable TV and on the city’s website.

-Big city mayors in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Huntsville, Montgomery and elsewhere have held regular town hall sessions on Facebook, or have provided updates and have taken questions from those participating on social media.

-The Alabama Legislature’s prison oversight committee met earlier this month in a Zoom meeting in which Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn provided an update on COVID-19 within the state’s prisons.

‘Good government’

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announces that she is putting the state under a shelter-in-place order during a briefing at the state capitol building in Montgomery, Ala., Friday, April 3, 2020. (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)AP

Even when technology is lacking, some governing bodies are taking a creative approach. The Henry County Commission met on the courthouse lawn in Abbeville during a rare outdoor meeting.

“The governor has been impressed with the innovation and creativity from our business’ marketing to our government practices,” said Gina Maiola, spokeswoman for Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey who, in a March 18 public emergency declaration, granted permission for public bodies to meet during teleconference or video conference meetings as long as the issues involved responding to COVID-19 matters or to perform “essential minimum functions.”

“She hopes that even when things get back to normal, we see some of these good practices remain,” Maiola said. “It is simply good government to reduce the cost for the taxpayer, while increasing efficiency and accessibility.”

Sonny Brasfield, executive director of the state’s county commission association, said he believes the rise in the videoconferencing could spur some changes in the Legislature. He said “it would be good for our open meetings law” to anticipate a future crisis that could keep public officials physically separate but still needing to meet.

“I think it puts the issue in focus for us as it relates to emergency and disaster conditions,” said Brasfield.

Kudos to the Henry County Commission and ACCA Pres @DavidMoney72 for a new kind of “open” government. The Commission holds its meeting outside to give public access during this pandemic!

What a great example of leadership!#alpolitics @NACoTweets #67ONE pic.twitter.com/iJSHGfwhJS — Sonny Brasfield (@sonnybrasfield) April 14, 2020

‘Tech-savvy’ concerns

Rawls said he’s unsure that the good habits will stick. In his observation, public access is not a priority for city halls and county commissions.

“This is due, in part, to a lack of tech-savvy officials and city employees,” said Rawls. “Check out the websites of many small towns in Alabama. They will give a list of public officials and city departments with their contact information and not much more. Those towns aren’t going to change and start positing lots of information online or broadcasting their meetings over Zoom if they don’t have to do it.”

Daphne – the largest city in Baldwin County with over 26,500 residents – had not live-streamed its public meetings for the public before last month.

Mayor Dane Haygood said the city recently hired two IT professionals before the pandemic forced the meetings to go online. The meetings are now streamed on Daphne’s city Facebook page and archived on the city’s YouTube page, and there is interest in possibly adding other meetings. Haygood said there is a “six to eight-week backlog” on purchasing streaming equipment.

He said he’s interested in continued streaming of the meetings after the pandemic, but one tricky issue remains on how to allow the public to comment from cyberspace.

The trickiest issue involves how to handle Facebook comments.

“There are people who comment on Facebook Live in the comment section, and I know … some council members said they would take issue with trying to relay those comments (during the meeting),” he said. “At other cities, someone might summarize (the Facebook questions and comments) and then it becomes at someone’s discretion on whether they think they are important.”

He added, “Right now, when it’s not safe for people to come out, and in terms of what is set forth by the Department of Public Health, we wanted the public to have every opportunity to participate. That’s something we are keeping in line with by having the dial-in (public comment).”

The future of remote public comments is uncertain, Haygood said.

“I would imagine that there is a line of thought that if it’s important enough to comment, you should come to the meeting,” he said. “We’ll see. It will probably evolve a little bit and we’ll learn from this.”

The Alabama Association of School Boards is recommending boards to forego public comments for the time being. According to general counsel Jayne Williams, the association questions whether public comments constitute an “essential minimum function” under Ivey’s order.

“Additionally, we cautioned our members about the ‘trolling’ that had taken place during virtual meetings by people who misused the technology wich provides the cover of anonymity,” Williams said. “We know our members look forward to returning to regular business and active public participation as soon as it is safe for us all.”

Will it last?

The video conference push in Alabama is not unlike what is occurring around the United States during the pandemic. According to the National League of Cities, cities like Atlanta and Fort Worth are streaming meetings online and taking questions or comments from residents via email or through dial-in options on Zoom.

The meetings are making politicians more visible to the public at a time when many are stranded at home.

“You do see a lot more of an electronic presence of public officials than you have in the past … there are a lot of people getting involved in it for the first time or at least using it more frequently now than they have in the past,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and a longtime observer of Southern politics.

He added, “During good times, the viewership will wane to zero. But when difficult times occur, such as storms winding through the South, people want to have a sense of what their leaders are talking about, what their response strategies are, and so the public can make their own plans. I do think having more access to information, people will come to expect more of it.”

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University and a longtime observer of Alabama state government, said it will be difficult for local governments to revert back to previous strategies of not hosting live-streamed meetings. “The genie will not go completely back into the bottle,” he said.

But he said the virtual meetings will not become a “wholesale replacement” for the in-person meetings. He said the very nature of a politician will prevent that from occurring.

“It doesn’t reward the ego if they aren’t sitting in a big building or within a chamber with an audience of 50 to 100 people,” said Brown.

He also can’t see the changes sticking with the Legislature, where legislative committee meetings are not broadcast and where lobbyists prefer personal interactions with lawmakers.

“We’ll learn from this experience, and inevitably in government, there will be behavioral adjustments,” said Brown. “But the status quo always has a lot of power behind it. I just don’t see any revolutionary changes in the operation of legislative bodies resulting out of this.”