Currently, residents can provide input on city business by submitting written comments ahead of the city’s bimonthly meetings or in person during designated times on the agenda.
Online comments are only allowed when a council member participates in the meeting remotely via Zoom while traveling on city business or out sick — as was the case Tuesday.
But under proposed changes that will go into effect by summer, members of the public will be able to comment via Zoom during every council meeting, restoring a practice popularized in the pandemic but later shelved amid a flood of racist, antisemitic and homophobic comments by online trolls.
The change comes as the city works to comply with recent state legislation that overhauled local government meeting requirements under the Brown Act, the state’s open meetings law.
Senate Bill 707 mandates that larger cities and counties provide options for remote participation by July 1 among other changes to translation and outreach requirements and updates to teleconferencing rules for elected officials.
Santa Rosa administrators provided an update on the new requirements to the council on Tuesday.
Vice Mayor Jeff Okrepkie, speaking after the meeting, said allowing online public comments will broaden public participation.
“For some people, City Hall can be five miles away but might as well be 500 because of whatever they have going on in their lives,” he said, though he noted that reinstating online comments does raise concerns that bad actors will abuse the system.
He said as the city expands public comment options it must commit to ensuring meetings remain civil.
City staffers intend to update meeting protocols to curb disorderly or unruly conduct.
Other local jurisdictions also are preparing to implement changes to comply with the new regulations.
Sonoma County spokesperson Matt Brown said the board clerk is crafting new protocols to allow remote public input at all supervisors meetings, including procedures outlining how the board will handle disruptive comments.
Options for remote participation expanded in the pandemic as public health orders shuttered meeting halls and local governments pivoted to Zoom and many jurisdictions continued allowing online comments even as the pandemic waned.
In Santa Rosa, community members could participate in meetings via Zoom or leave voicemail messages that were played during meetings.
After repeated disruptions by organized online hatemongers targeting meetings of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, Santa Rosa City Schools trustees and the Santa Rosa council, among others, elected leaders across the region began discussing ways to curtail offensive speech while protecting public access.
Local jurisdictions weighed limiting online speakers to 30 seconds or implementing a time delay to allow a staff member to review the incoming feed before comments were aired.
In Santa Rosa, city staffers during a September 2023 council meeting issued unusual but stark warnings to attendees that comments must be related to items on the agenda or city issues or they would be muted if they veered off topic.
It did little to stop the vitriol from pouring in, leading the council to take a short recess before continuing the meeting, only for public comments to again be sabotaged by another round of online commenters.
Ultimately, Santa Rosa and other jurisdictions opted to eliminate online public comments.
But the value is clear.
Allowing online public comments expanded the volume of public participation and also welcomed a wider cross-section of people who may otherwise not have attended meetings in person because of work and family obligations, lack of transportation, health concerns or other limitations.
Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said it’s not practical for her constituents in rural communities along the coast and in western Sonoma County to make the trek to Santa Rosa.
“Some West County residents have to spend three hours in the car to earn the right to make two minutes of public comment in person at a Board of Supervisors meeting,” she said.
Today just a handful of jurisdictions across Sonoma and Napa counties continue to allow remote comments.
Under SB 707, cities and counties with a population of 30,000 or more or cities located in a county with more than 600,000 residents must provide options for remote participation.
It only applies to council and board of supervisors meetings and is not required during other board and commissions meetings.
Locally, Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Rohnert Park, the county’s three largest cities, and Sonoma County must provide online comment options. In Napa County, the new rules apply only to the city and county of Napa, though the county already allows members of the public to make comments telephonically during meetings.
Smaller cities would not be mandated to provide online comment options though some like Cotati and Sebastopol already do.
Remote options must be provided via a two-way audiovisual platform where the public can attend and comment online or a two-way telephonic service where participants can dial into the meeting and comment by phone.
Petaluma City Manager Peggy Flynn said the city is preparing to reinstate remote comments by the July 1 deadline. Staff anticipate bringing forward a policy to the council in May, she said.
In Rohnert Park, City Clerk Sylvia Lopez Cuevas said the city is working to transition to a two-way teleconference platform that will allow online public comments starting July 1.
Members of the public will be able to provide public comment during Napa council meetings via Zoom, city spokesperson Jaina French said.
In Santa Rosa, community members will have the option to provide comments via Zoom.
Online commenters must be given the same amount of time to comment as in-person speakers under the legislation, according to City Clerk Dina Manis.
Speakers are traditionally allowed up to three minutes for public comments.
Manis recommended that the council amend its council manual to give the presiding officer — typically the mayor — discretion to set public comments between one and three minutes per speaker in anticipation that more people will be participating.
SB 707 also requires that local governments adopt procedures outlining what to do if internet or phone services go down during a meeting limiting remote participation.
The city must recess for at least one hour while staff attempts to restore service. If service isn’t reestablished, the council may resume the meeting only after adopting, by a vote, findings that the city made a “good faith attempt” to restore service and that there’s good cause to continue the meeting, according to the new rules.
Manis said while significant outages are rare they do occur. Her office has been discussing with the IT department ways to limit disruptions, such as having a backup server.
Beyond technical challenges, local agencies also will have to contend with ensuring meetings remain civil as they prepare to again allow remote comments.
The legislation specifies that existing rules that allow governing bodies to remove individuals who impede government business from meeting chambers also can be applied to online participants.
Manis said city officials will have authority to issue warnings, limit participation or remove participants from the livestream if they don’t follow proper procedures, use profane or abusive language or otherwise disrupt the meeting.
Online participants who make violent threats will be automatically removed, she said.
Hopkins, the county supervisor, said officials heard from several community members who reported being afraid to make public comments after several board meetings were sabotaged by online trolls.
While reinstating online comments will allow more residents to weigh in on local matters, local officials must create a safe and inclusive environment for all meeting attendees and staff.
“We can’t allow racist, sexist, toxic attacks to overtake our meetings,” she said. “It creates a hostile work environment for county staff and it prevents other members of the public from participating because they’re intimidated.”
Staff Writer Amie Windsor contributed to this report.
© 2026 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
