Login detail published not correct for Zoom

Question

Having experienced that the login details published for a Zoom meeting were not correct and members of the public were not able to access the meeting how does that affect the validity of the meeting.

Answer 1

It is unfortunate but I don't believe that it does affect the validity of the meeting.  Clearly there was human error involved and this should be raised with the council in question and they should ensure that this doesn't happen again.  If members of the public want to know what was discussed and agreed, then they should contact the clerk and request a copy of the draft minutes, or speak to a councillor who attended.

Answer 2

Is it to be assumed that the incorrect details were included on the agendas posted on both notice boards and on the website?If so then it should at least be thoroughly investigated as to how it arose and why the link was not checked and tested before the meeting by whoever was setting it up. Also there is the question as to whether councillors were also given the incorrect link which stopped them taking part in which case questions of being quorate would be raised and validity would surely become relevant.

Comments

I would suggest that if the councillors received the incorrect Zoom login then they ALL would have received the wrong info!  I certainly agree that an investigation should take place but it does sound like human error, which does happen.

I don't believe that the legislation exists that if the meeting is not open to the public on the basis of an IT or facilities issue, that the meeting is invalid.  The only factor to consider if is the meeting was quorate with councillors...

Answer 3

Hmmmm this is a tough one and something not thought out when the legislation was approved.

IF the meeting related to ordinary business and was very 'run of the mill' i.e. nothing contentious then I suppose the impact will not be huge. However one would hope that the Clerk and Councillors exercised sound judgement in regards to what should have been discussed or rolled over to the next meeting if the link was wrong.

Given that it is a legal requirement to publish the time and date of meetings etc I think an investigation for the sake of transparency is important and any learnings put in place to stop it from happening in the future.

Answer 4

Cut and paste!

Answer 5

We had something similar happen at a VIrtual Planning Meeting, however, when we investigated what the heck went wrong it transpired that between us publishing the link and the date of the meeting Microsoft had altered all their codecs, so the links wouldn't work.  The annoying part of this was we tested the links the day before and the change came in overnight!  This was confirmed by Microsoft and it played hell with our County Council that day as well!

BTW the link for the Councillors is different to the public link as we have full access, the public have to be let in and it was only the Public link that was messed up

However, we also request that anyone wishing to make a representation submit their questions, representations, etc in advance in case there is an issue, so everyone question was asked and every representation was made.

As we also record the meeting members of the public were able to inspect the meeting on our YouTube channel for transparency.

We are minded that the legislation and guidance both make it clear that it should be visible "if possible", in this case, we failed but we could still be seen being open and transparency by publishing the video, as recommended.