Some officials and public advocates say they hope plans for post-pandemic public meetings will include a mix of in-person and technology-enabled access

FOCUS | INNOVATION/STARTUPS

Public officials ponder future of online meetings

BY MARY MACDONALD | MacDonald@PBN.com

RHODE Island public meetings have been virtual for more than a year. In that time, the audience for the meetings of public bodies such as school committees and planning boards – normally sparsely attended – has grown and diversified to include people who couldn’t get to in-person meetings. But the technology that has allowed public meetings to continue through the pandemic has likely excluded other people, many say. As the state and local governments plan for reopening traditional meetings, some officials and public advocates say they hope plans will include a mix of both in-person meetings and technology-enabled access. If that happens, Common Cause Rhode Island, which tracks open meetings access, said guardrails need to be established for members of public boards to participate online, with most members gathering in person in order for meetings to be considered valid. “Our position is that at least a quorum of public bodies should have to return in person,” said John Marion, Common Cause executive director. Virtual public meetings started when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. That’s when an executive order that suspended the state’s Open Meetings

Act and allowed public meetings to be conducted remotely was signed by former Gov. Gina M. Raimondo. Gov. Daniel J. McKee has renewed the order, extending the suspension until June 25. The order allows public bodies to use “adequate alternate means” of public access to allow people to access the deliberations of public bodies in real time and participate as well. The options include telephone, internet and satellite-enabled audio and video conferences. At first, many were worried the public would struggle with the complexities of the technology. “Not everyone is on a laptop,” said Christine West, an architect who leads the Providence City Plan Commission. “To have phone participation was actually really important.” Soon after the transition, she and other commissioners realized their online audiences had grown dramatically beyond the typical attendance. Still, West is concerned that something is getting lost online. “There are some advantages,” she said. “People can hear the applicants. They can see, clearly, the drawings.” But what isn’t clear, she said, is whether the audience is paying attention to the entire presentation, or whether they’re listening after they’ve spoken at a virtual hearing. ‘There are real concerns about who is being excluded.’

VIRTUAL CONNECTION: Gov. Daniel J. McKee holds a Facebook Live event on June 3 to discuss health care in Rhode Island. Panelists included, clockwise, Womazetta Jones, secretary of R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services; Stefan Pryor, commerce secretary; Patrick Tigue, the state health insurance commissioner; Dr. Megan Ranney, of Brown University; and Dr. Nicole AlexanderScott, R.I. Department of Health director. It’s unclear what form these types of gatherings will take after the pandemic has passed.

For board members who often can’t see the speakers because cameras aren’t required to be activated, a virtual hearing makes it harder to “read the room.”

In an in-person meeting, West said, she can look out at the crowd and see who’s nodding in agreement during public comment. “You can kind of tell the level of public interest from the crowd,” she said.

What she hopes happens is a return to in-person meetings for the board members, with monitors that allow the public to participate virtually.

The administration of Mayor Jorge O. Elorza is investigating its options, according to Sabrina Solares-Hand, the city’s chief operating officer. But the idea is to proceed with a hybrid model, allowing online and in-person participation.

“We do see the value in having people have the flexibility to participate in a virtual environment,” she said.

Doing that will require spending some money and making modifications to its spaces to accommodate the technology.

So far, the Elorza administration has spent about $15,000 on about 30 online accounts that allow all city departments to hold public meetings virtually, primarily using the platform provided by Zoom Video Communications Inc. City Hall reopened fully on June 1, but as yet, city officials are waiting for state guidance on when to reopen in-person public meetings.

A spokeswoman for McKee did not respond immediately to a request for information about how the state will handle public meetings in the future.

Marion said there are certainly benefits to holding public meetings online. He’s noticed that the board of trustees overseeing Central Falls schools has used a feature of Zoom that allows for Spanish translations. And a member of the Block Island Utility Commission notified Marion recently that, although the commissioner doesn’t live on the island most of the year, he was able to participate in meetings throughout the winter without having to catch the ferry.

But Marion also cited U.S. Census information that says almost 15% of Rhode Islanders lack broadband internet access.

“Many, but not all, videoconferencing platforms provide for a toll-free telephone option for those who might not have internet access. But there are real concerns about who is being excluded,” Marion said.

Robert Davis, chairman of the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission, said he hoped the state will continue videoconferencing as a complement to its in-person meetings, as it benefits both the public and board members.

Prior to the executive order that allowed virtual meetings, the commission had instances in which board members couldn’t get to the 5 p.m. weekday meetings on time. Meeting were delayed or canceled.

“We literally had situations where people were stuck in traffic on I-195,” Davis said. “You could hook them in by conference call, but it couldn’t count.” n

TECH BRIDGE

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But just as the Tech Bridge was gaining momentum in early 2020, COVID-19 struck and threatened to bring it all to a crashing halt.

“It was troubling from a personal standpoint; it was troubling from a professional standpoint; and from a state and citizen standpoint,” said Cowan, 401 Tech Bridge executive director.

As the pandemic put a stranglehold on the economy and seemed to put the future of the 401 Tech Bridge – and its mission of supporting the state’s promising textiles, composites and undersea technology industries – in doubt, in a way the crisis was also preparing the program for the future.

“That’s when we were tapped on the shoulder by the R.I. Commerce Corp. to help the state respond to the pandemic because of the connections we had to local manufacturing and production companies,” Cowan said.

R.I. Commerce Corp. tasked the Tech Bridge with supporting efforts to retool local manufacturers so they could produce and supply personal protective equipment. Cowan and Mary Johnson, 401 Tech Bridge manager, drew from their connections in the industry. Both had worked at the Polaris Manufacturing Extension Partnership before the Tech Bridge started.

The Tech Bridge aided manufacturers such as the Pawtucket-based Cooley Group, which was developing a material used to make isolation gowns, find partnerships for their product.

“We were doing the same type of work [as before the pandemic], just in a different way,” Johnson said, noting that the experience validated the Tech Bridge’s role in aiding businesses.

As the economy stabilized, Johnson said, the organization began to find its legs and started launching its programming. One example is the Small Business Innovation Research program, designed to encourage businesses to conduct research and development for potential commercialization of technology.

“Our role is the connector between companies and opportunities, but also helping companies with technical assistance, and to remedy any obstacles that stand in their way,” Johnson said. Those obstacles include everything from a lack of funding to a lack of physical space for research. 401 Tech Bridge functions with $6 million in operating capital from federal, state and private sources. In April, it received a $724,674 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology – or SPRINT – Challenge.

The challenge was created last year as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act with the aim of harnessing entrepreneurial talents to address the economic and health risks caused by the pandemic.

That EDA grant followed a $2.3 million grant from the same agency last August to construct a dedicated 17,000-square-foot research and development facility in Portsmouth. The Advanced Materials and Technology Center is slated to be completed by year’s end and will be a partner-

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Christian Cowan, executive director of 401 Tech Bridge in Portsmouth, and Mary Johnson, manager, outside the location of what will become the organization’s Advanced Materials and Technology Center, a 17,000-square-foot research and development facility slated to be completed by the end of the year.

PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

ship among Polaris MEP, the University of Rhode Island, the Composites Alliance of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Textiles Innovation Network and the Office of Naval Research.

One of the beneficiaries of 401 Tech Bridge has been Flux Marine Ltd., an East Greenwich startup that is producing zero-emissions electric outboard motors for boats.

During the development process, Flux has used connections made through the Tech Bridge, which also assisted the company in getting access to the Newport-based International Yacht Restoration School’s composites expertise and prototyping equipment.

“We were kind of a guinea pig,” said Daylin Frantin, Flux co-founder and chief operating officer. “They’re constantly introducing us to folks. The other day, we needed help with some design work, and they introduced us to some local designers.”

George Nickolopoulos, vice president of business development and external relations at Bristol-based Goetz Composites, called the Tech Bridge a “super connector.”

Goetz Composites was a winner of 401 Tech Bridge’s Naval Sea Systems Command’s Prize Challenge, earning a $250,000 grant to develop the shell of an unmanned undersea vehicle that could survive great depths.

Nickolopoulos said the Tech Bridge helped Goetz advance its work by introducing the company to business partners and collaborators in the blue economy and other sectors.

“They bring together academia, industry and government, putting us in the same space to solve our problems,” Nickolopoulos said. “Often we are incentivized by a financial benefit as well.”

The Advanced Materials and Technology Center under construction in Portsmouth is slated to be the centerpiece of Tech Bridge offerings. It is designed for short-term projects where collaborators can occupy a lab-type space to conduct research and development.

“It’s not an incubator space,” Johnson said. “It’s really a collaboration space, where companies will be able to show their products to potential partners on a small scale.” 401 Tech Bridge will be recruiting companies over the summer for its accelerator program in the fall. The organization will emphasize building upon the connections its formed among the universities, government and industry.

“We’re now at a point where we are hoping that the pandemic is trailing off and the viability of our space has never looked better,” Cowan said. n

‘They’re constantly introducing us to folks.’