Amid growing talk about the possibility of airing city workshops to the public online or on television, the city of McAllen appears on the verge of taking that plunge, making it easier for the public to glean more about the workings of their local government.
During a workshop held Monday, the McAllen city commissioners discussed whether to broadcast such gatherings live on social media and, if so, through what platform.
The proposal came up now because the prospect of broadcasting the workshops had come up recently among the candidates running in the city’s May elections, explained City Manager Roy Rodriguez.
Many of the candidates were asked during candidate forums whether they favored broadcasting city workshops, and responded that they would.
“Out in the community, in general, we’ve heard that through the years and we’ve really heard it — maybe because there are so many candidates — right now,” Rodriguez said. “Out there the candidates are being asked, and it really got our attention, whether it’s something that we want to do.”
Director of Communications Xochitl Mora told the commissioners there wouldn’t be a problem in airing the workshops but expressed concerns over streaming the meetings live on Facebook.
Mora explained that comment sections on Facebook posts were vulnerable to online trolling or other inappropriate comments that the city would be unable to filter. On the other hand, if they were to stream the workshops on YouTube, they would be able to disable comments altogether.
For Commissioner Victor “Seby” Haddad, a larger concern with going live on Facebook was the possibility that people might comment mistakenly believing that the commissioners will see their questions.
“Those questions might probably always go unanswered or they start believing that they can chime in to the commission meetings from Facebook which would deter them maybe from coming or submitting comments or calling in,” Haddad said. “If someone wants to engage, I think it’s best that they make an effort to either come to City Hall or come in, or let us know beforehand.”
Mayor Jim Darling had another concern in mind when it came to the comments section — that of it being a possible avenue for the spread of falsehoods.
“We’ve got enough bad publicity with the national news without somebody on Facebook making up crap about us and making it look official because it’s in response to what we’re putting out there ourselves,” Darling said.
Still, Commissioner Omar Quintanilla, who is currently running for reelection in the May elections, pushed for the workshops to be posted on Facebook, arguing that the public spent a lot of time on the site.
“People are on Facebook for two or three hours a day so if people are getting their information on Facebook then I think that we ought to do everything we can to be submitting content, including city commission meetings, where people are at,” Quintanilla said.
Mora, however, assured that if they do decide to stream on YouTube, the city would post the link on their Facebook page.
“So if the goal is to get more viewers, then you’re still going to get them through YouTube,” she said. “If you’re wanting feedback or comments then what you want to do is encourage them to submit questions or … have them come or call.”
At the end of the workshop, the commissioners appeared to agree that having them broadcast on YouTube would be a good place to start but did not reach a final consensus. Rodriguez, the city manager, said an action item on whether to air the meetings would be placed on the agenda for the next city commission meeting, during which the commissioners would be able to take a vote on the issue.
