Orange City Council's efforts to conduct its meeting by the online video conferencing platform Zoom were beset by glitches on Tuesday night.
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Councillors seeking to conference call from their homes and offices around Orange dropped out of the meeting, were frozen on screen and had problems with sound being muted.
Cr Mario Previtera missed voting on his own notice of motion to remove a no-fishing sign at the Ploughmans Wetlands when he was frozen off the call for several minutes.
Mayor Reg Kidd was frozen out in the middle of reading a statement about the reasons council was entering a closed meeting.
But when councillors turned to deputy mayor Sam Romano to take over he was also out of the call.
The federal government should seriously look at connectivity in regional areas.
- Cr Reg Kidd, Orange mayor
Earlier in the night Cr Kevin Duffy had to leave the meeting due to technical difficulties, and he was tuning in from the Orange council offices.
At one stage all councillors were directed to be muted to stop several people talking at once. However, there were subsequent problems about un-muting some councillors so they could be heard again.
A resident was also unable to speak in the Open Forum section after he was frozen.
Cr Kidd said it was the worst night council had seen for Zoom meetings.
Online meetings have been brought about due to coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings.
Cr Kidd said the glitches highlighted the problems regional areas faced with unreliable internet connectivity.
"That just shows you with technology, what we suffer from in regional areas that the connectivity isn't what it should be," he said.
"The federal government should seriously look at connectivity in regional areas.
"They keep saying it's good out here.
"It wasn't like there was 100 people in the Zoom."
He said poor weather on the night might have contributed to the problem.
Cr Kidd said council would prefer to be able to return to face-to-face meetings in the council chambers but it needed local government approval.
"We have responsibility to the staff too," he said.
"If you open [the meeting] to councillors the staff have got to come, no option.
"And secondly [there is] Open Forum. Anybody can come in off the street."
"You can't shut the doors, only when you have a confidential session."
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