The Bangor City Council voted Nov. 10 to amend its remote participation policy and stop allowing public comment by remote methods, citing recent disruptive behavior on Zoom and technological limits.

Councilor Dean, who introduced the order, said the city is not required to allow remote public comment and that staff "received disruptive behavior encountered during Zoom public participation and the technological limitations in this regard," arguing the change will protect meetings while staff develops alternatives. The order, moved and seconded, passed after the chair said, "Seeing no objections, the order will have passage." (Council Chair, SEG 1167)

Why it matters: supporters said the step is temporary and necessary to keep meetings usable while staff designs a safer system; opponents said the change cuts off residents who rely on remote access for health, work or transportation reasons and urged less drastic fixes.

Residents who spoke at length urged the council to use targeted moderation rather than a blanket ban. "Removing remote access punishes the entire community for the actions of a few," said Hillary Simmons, a Bangor resident, adding that preregistration, muting and clearer conduct rules would address abusive callers. Several other commenters suggested mandatory Zoom accounts or preregistration to reduce anonymous abuse.

Council response and next steps: several councilors said they supported a temporary suspension while staff builds a registrant-based or moderated system. "The reason why I'm going to vote yes on this tonight is simply because in order to get that done, we need to give staff the guidance and the ability to prepare for that," Councilor Leonard said, adding he intends to bring Zoom comments back after staff reports back. Councilors agreed to place the issue on the first workshop in January to revisit policy and implementation.

Public context and process: the council first paused remote comments for the evening at the start of the meeting after a motion by Councilor Fish; the full order to amend the remote participation policy (Council Order 26-011) was later introduced as new business and adopted. The order allows citizens to attend in council chambers or submit written comments while staff develops remote safeguards.

What to watch: city staff is expected to return with a plan for a registrant/moderated remote comment system at the first council workshop in January; the council’s timeline and the specific technological or procedural safeguards were not specified in the meeting record (topic to be revisited, SEG 1061-1064).