By DOWNBEACH TODAY
MARGATE – One of the promises made when the Collins administration was seated in May 2023 was to provide the public with access to government meetings live on Zoom.
Previously, Commission and Planning Board meetings were audio recorded and posted on the city’s website within a few days, but residents clamored for a live online broadcasting platform such as Zoom where they could weigh-in on issues in realtime.
When Administrator Patrick Moran was hired as administrator in mid-2025, he was charged with getting the Zoom platform operational in the meeting room at 1 S. Washington Ave. However, the process has been tedious at best and has never worked like it should.
Residents are still not able to provide public comments via the Zoom platform. Instead, they are asked to notify the city by 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting if they have any questions or want to make a statement. Members of the public who attend the meetings in person have never heard one comment from a person attending online.
We at DownbeachToday have a problem with that.
Firstly, there are three public comment periods on the commission’s workshop and regular meeting agendas. The first public comment period comes at the end of the workshop, where departments heads, city solicitor and occasional presenters such as the city auditor get the opportunity to discuss city issue, i.e., the controversial Washington Avenue streetscape project that proposed changing the direction of traffic or the budget. Residents said they did not know anything about it turning Washington Avenue into a one-way street.
If questions must be submitted by 3 p.m., an hour before the work session starts, how is a member of the public to know what will be discussed when there is no agenda posted? How can they comment on something that hasn’t happened yet? They can’t. This is denying them the opportunity to participate in the government process.
Secondly, those who attend the regular meeting on Zoom can only listen to the proceedings. They can’t ask questions or make statements unless they notify the city by 3 p.m. Again, they are being denied the opportunity to participate in the government process.
At one meeting before the 3 p.m. deadline policy was set, members who attended online were able to use the chat feature on Zoom to ask a question or make a comment. Instead of reading out the question or comment for the public to hear, Moran answered the question in the chat box. That’s not “public” comment, that’s a private conversation.
Over the last two meetings, audio was not broadcast live to the public at all. On May 21, DownbeachToday attempted to attend remotely due to schedule conflicts, but the audio portion of the live broadcast did not work. At Thursday’s meeting, it happened again – this time with the city’s technology consultant in attendance.
Apparently, the city has a bifurcated system that shares the cameras set up for the Municipal Court. The City Clerk records the meeting on the desktop computer on the dais, and another employee records the meeting for Zoom on a laptop. Both use the stationary camera mounted on the ceiling in the center of the room, which faces the dais and shows another view of speakers who approach the microphone. The two large monitors on either side of the room are not operational during the meeting, and no one can see who is attending online.
Moran announced at the start of Thursday’s meeting that the prior meeting’s broadcast was interrupted because the system was unknowingly used earlier in that day, which affected the settings. He noted that the technology consultant was present and would ensure the meeting on Thursday was broadcast as it should.
Well, when the meeting was ready to begin, City Clerk Johanna Casey announced her computer wasn’t recording. Moran also noted there was a Windows update between the time the system was checked earlier in the day and the time the meeting started, which also affected the settings. The flustered tech consultant worked for 15 minutes, crouched under the desk to check connections, and made a few phone calls to get the system working.
Meanwhile, the Recreation Department employee who records the meeting for Zoom shook his head indicating his system was also not working properly. About a dozen Zoom attendees were again left in limbo wondering what happened at the meeting. Luckily, except for a few controversial comments made during the public comment period that failed to answer the resident’s concerns about the lack of a finance report, it was a routine meeting. Oh, it did provide solicitor John Scott Abbott with a new year-long contract paying him a $95,388 retainer and up to $80,000 more for any additional legal services he might undertake on behalf of the city at a rate of $200 per hour. That’s a substantial issue the public should be able to question.
Margate is no stranger to communicating with the public on things it thinks is important. It funds a $1,500 per month social media contract that announces community events, mostly ones that are attended by certain commissioners or may be of interest to visitors. The social media manager posts an advisory after meetings detailing some of the actions taken by the commissioners but mostly avoids the more controversial issues brought up by the public. It is now emailing a monthly newsletter detailing other issues affecting the community. This month’s main features are e-bike rules and Beachstock. Reading it, you would think Margate is the perfect community to own a second home.
To be more transparent with taxpayers, residents and visitors, Margate only needs to look to its neighbor to the north, Ventnor, where the city has been effectively broadcasting remotely and soliciting comments at public meetings for years. Longport, if you’re listening, you need to offer the public more than the opportunity to eavesdrop on commission meetings, too.
In the age of technology, there is no excuse for a wealthy community like Margate not to have its act together when it comes to transparency. Margate must do better.
There’s a lot going on “in the room where it happened.” You should be part of it, too.
Leave a Reply