SOLEDAD — The Facebook and Zoom broadcast of Soledad City Council’s April 21 meeting had to be shut down twice and items from the meeting delayed after malicious characters took over the stream with a video feed of explicit pornography.
The first interruption took place when Mayor Anna Velazquez discussed the recognition of community partnerships, when moderators were able to shut the feed down in what looked like a signal drop to the general audience.
However, upon returning to the meeting with more controlled moderation of who would be let in, the malicious characters played at least three seconds of the video before city staff once again shut down the meeting.
“One of the things we did notice is we had a larger audience than usual,” said Brent Slama, city manager. He said 99.9% of people are respectful in city meetings, but all it took was one person with bad intentions and likely a waiting audience.
The online formats for meetings mean everyone has access to the links, since public meetings conducted online still require the public to be aware of how to access the footage. While the process stands for citizen participation in their government, the online venue means people who care more about disruption can join in.
“It’s like if someone walked in naked to the city council chambers,” Slama said, explaining the incident wasn’t hacking but rather someone using the open share screen function. “Would you do that? No, because you’d get arrested. But under the invisibility and being a thousand miles away, in cyber land it’s easier to do that sort of thing.”
Slama didn’t comment on whether they had a person caught or if there was a suspect.
“Moving forward, we will be moving to webinars,” he said. “When you go to these meetings, you’re in listen-only mode, and if you want to be recognized, you have to go through a process and have to be recognized, so we un-mute you one at a time. It’ll make extra steps, but it’ll be more secure that way.”
The future of meetings is likely to include more in-person content, with Monterey County stabilizing within the Orange Tier, and likely having continued easing of restrictions. However, while in-person attendance and meetings will be a growing possibility, the influence of hybrid meetings will remain for the time being, with citizens and guests able to watch and comment through virtual means.
“People can be more engaged if they don’t have to come to the council chamber,” Slama said.
The double-edged sword of virtual attendance, he said, is in not knowing who is in attendance.
“Webinar format will make it a little tougher to engage with us but certainly be safer,” Slama added.
The business items that weren’t handled on April 21 were moved to a special meeting on April 27. The presentations and awards that were disrupted instead took place during the regular council meeting on May 5.
