City commission ends phone comments, votes to show support for “We Say Gaynesville” event

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

At their March 17 meeting, the Gainesville City Commission voted to discontinue phone comments and to show support for the “We Say Gaynesville” event that happened on Saturday.

At the same meeting where they voted to spend close to a million dollars over three years to provide translation services to make City government more accessible to non-English speakers, the commission voted to make City meetings less accessible to those who have difficulty getting to City Hall in person.

The agenda item was proposed by Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos, who said, “Times have changed, and we’ve come back to normal, to an extent. The cost is significant for us to provide the service; we’re on track to spend like $110,000 a year on this.” He pointed out that the County has also ended the service. 

Commissioners David Arreola and Reina Saco thanked the call service representative who was working that meeting, with Saco adding, “You are family at this point… nobody sticks with the whole meeting except us and you… But unfortunately I am going to have to agree with Commissioner Hayes-Santos… At the beginning, this was vital. There was no other way… But I think we’ve noticed that through the data provided, that for a couple dozen folks to constantly use it…” She paused to get clarification on the numbers and was told that 391 unique callers had used the service. “Okay, that’s fewer than 400 in a city of… 145,000?… It was a lovely convenience to have, but it’s no longer a necessity.” Saco said she would like to see the service phased out, with plenty of notice to the public “so that our neighbors don’t miss out on the opportunity to comment when the program does go dark.”

Mayor Lauren Poe said the service has been particularly useful for big issues with a lot of public participation, “but for our regular business, I agree.”

Hayes-Santos made a motion to end the call-in service and use those funds to cover the cost of the language access program for limited English speakers. 

Clerk Omichele Gainey said the contract with the service ends on March 28, so “this will be likely the last meeting that we’ll be using their service.” Poe asked whether they could still use the service on an ad hoc basis, and Gainey said she would work with the company to do that. 

“This has been a huge opportunity for lower-income residents, elderly, handicapped, and other hard-working residents to participate when they are unable to attend in person.” – Debbie Martinez

During public comment, Debbie Martinez called in to say the service “has proven to be an asset and a more equitable way for allowing residents to engage their commission during City meetings in real time. This has been a huge opportunity for lower-income residents, elderly, handicapped, and other hard-working residents to participate when they are unable to attend in person.” She encouraged the commission to work on setting up an in-house service, like the school board does. 

Nathan Skop said, “The majority of you guys are still wearing masks, you’re projecting a culture of fear and paranoia by virtue of you wearing your mask despite the President saying they’re not required. People are afraid to come down. If you guys are going to… try to limit remote participation, citing costs, take off the masks and encourage people to come down to City Hall.” He also suggested finding a way to provide the service with City staff.

Tina Days said the service is invaluable to people like her who “can’t always go down to City Hall on a work day, and much less at a 6:00 meeting. I have three kids… I cannot come to the meeting, and the only way I can participate is to call in. And I do have legitimate things I want to say. I think it would be a disgrace if y’all discontinue this service.”

The motion to let the contract expire passed 5-1, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker in dissent and Arreola absent. The second part of the motion, to direct staff to put the savings toward the translation program, failed 2-4, with Commissioners Cynthia Chestnut and Hayes-Santos in favor of the motion. The dissenting commissioners had indicated that they did not want to give specific directions about where staff should find the funding for the translation services.

“We Say Gaynesville”

After the vote, they moved to commission comment. Poe said he was hoping the commission could pass a motion to show support for the “We Say Gaynesville” event that happened on March 19, “particularly to protect our children in their educational setting.” The motion allowed the organizers to use the City’s logo. That motion passed unanimously.