On March 4, 2020, Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a declaration of emergency following a determination by the Health Officer of Los Angeles County of possible COVID-19 community transmission occurring in the public. A series of Mayoral emergency orders followed, changing how the City and its Departments carry out core functions including telecommuting for City employees. Further affecting the Department’s operations were State executive orders modifying the public meeting laws, and more specifically the Brown Act (Executive Order N-25-20) These changes now enabled Departments to hold virtual public meetings.
Technology as eliminated the “physical place” that “facilitates attendance by the public” by using web conferencing platforms. Without a physical location for participants, it reduces or eliminates the public’s need to travel and increases accessibility to those who may otherwise be unable to attend in-person public hearings.
Will virtual public hearing change the public’s perspective on in-person public hearings? Only one in four Americans have attended a local public meeting in 2014, according to a Governing article featuring data from the National Research Center. Often, those meetings lack a demographically broad representation of the community and are dominated by the most vocal community members with a specific issue or an axe to grind.
“Testing the Waters” study released in 2013 by the nonprofit group, Public Agenda and the Davenport Institute, surveyed 900 local officials in California on public hearings. The study found that on the one hand, a full 88 percent of respondents said that the public has “ample opportunity” to participate in local decision-making and that they considered typical public meetings to be effective. On the other, the vast majority also believed the public is to be too busy to participate, too disengaged or ignorant to understand the issues facing their communities, and too angry and distrustful of local officials to be reliable partners. Three-fourths of the local officials surveyed believed that public meetings are dominated by people with narrow agendas. Nearly two-thirds said that public hearings “typically attract complainers and professional citizens’” and don’t give the broad public a voice. Only half said that their typical meetings “generate thoughtful discussion among ordinary residents.”
The answer to the question, “will virtual public hearing change the public’s perspective on in-person public hearings? is – I hope so! At least, the City’s virtual public hearings will be an opportunity to change the format of presentations to be more interactive and dynamic. This is a different approach from the tired linear and static PowerPoint or Keynote slides. It’s a presentation in an organic flow of information. In a live presentation, this is a “Conversational Presentation“, which is more interactive and presents only the information the audience wants to see in the order, they need to see it. Information is presented based on the presenter’s desired flow and response to questions. SATT is developing a “Conversational Presentation” application for virtual public hearings using text, images, videos, and audio.
SATT has already developed “Wheelhouse”, a “Viewer Led Presentation” that enables viewers to jump and move around topics and subtopics depending on their interest. This gives the presentation a more personalized experience. Instead of a linear showing of slides, SATT’s Wheelhouse application makes use of one large canvas that allows viewers to pan and zoom to various parts of the canvas and emphasize their desired information. Wheelhouse uses text, images, and videos to tell a story.
SATT’s Wheelhouse application presents four core topics that govern most conversations on land use – Property, Project, Request, and Justification. Property is a discussion of the land and how it’s used or to be used as determined by general plans and zoning. Project is the development, construction, or a change of use. Request is the discretionary process triggered by regulations and guidelines. Lastly, Justifications address the legal Findings required by the decision-maker.
SATT’s Wheelhouse uses these four topics in a non-linear Viewer Led Presentation format. The viewer can ignore the established presentation path and plot their own entirely by clicking on a topic to zoom in on. Click here to see an example of a Wheelhouse
