{"id":16359,"date":"2025-09-29T20:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/zooming-in-cortez-allows-virtual-attendance-for-council-members-in-divisive-vote\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:57:08","slug":"zooming-in-cortez-allows-virtual-attendance-for-council-members-in-divisive-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/zooming-in-cortez-allows-virtual-attendance-for-council-members-in-divisive-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Zooming in: Cortez allows virtual attendance for council members in divisive vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cortez
Cortez City Hall. (The Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Amid disagreement, the Cortez City Council passed an ordinance in a 4-3 vote on Tuesday, Sept. 23, allowing members to attend meetings remotely up to six times per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been wrestling with this issue since, actually I think, early June,\u201d said Patrick Coleman, city attorney.<\/p>\n

The ordinance permits councilors to participate in meetings virtually up to six times annually, according to Coleman. No more than two of the seven council members may attend via video conference at any one meeting.<\/p>\n

The vote followed months of debate. Supporters said virtual attendance reflects modern workplace practices, offers flexibility and improves accessibility. Opponents argued it violates the spirit of the city charter and could lead to disengagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis allows flexibility for council members,\u201d said City Councilor Bill Lewis. \u201cIt also aligns us more with workplace practice, and I think as a city we should be one of the leaders using technology. So, I think we should be embracing this versus resisting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key point of contention was how the ordinance aligns with the city charter. Coleman recommended the council clarify the charter\u2019s language regarding virtual participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I agree with a lot of what Councilor Lewis just said, I don\u2019t think that we have the power to do this,\u201d said Councilor Robert Dobry. \u201cWe need to be extremely cautious about overstepping our limits, even for what people would consider a good cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat charter has to be changed by a vote of the people for this to be allowed, not by proposing an ordinance to backdoor our way around it,\u201d said City Councilor April Randle. \u201cAnd it clearly states in the city code: \u2018The City Council shall meet at the City Hall.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Randle also said the change would create a disconnect between city staff and constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt results in a direct loss of human communication and contact between us, the elected officials sitting here today, our city staff who\u2019s out here with us and the city citizens who are with us,\u201d Randle said.<\/p>\n

Others viewed the change differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the charter is a living document and that the charter specifically does allow us to make changes via ordinance,\u201d said City Councilor Lydia DeHaven. \u201cThis is within the bounds of City Council\u2019s rights to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Rachel Medina said the council received \u201cabout 12 emails and all were in support of this ordinance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we all want to be here in person,\u201d said Medina. \u201cWe benefit from that. But we\u2019re trying to catch up with the ADA rules that are coming from the state and just the general way that accessibility is moving to allow people to participate regardless of their circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medina said the ordinance is a first step toward broader remote engagement for residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would just note that we do already allow virtual comment by email, as you just mentioned,\u201d Councilor Dobry responded. \u201cWe receive emails for many issues and always include them in our packet as part of the public record.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ordinance passed 4-3, with Councilors Randle, Dobry and Dennis Spruell voting against. DeHaven, Lewis and Matthew Keefauver voted in favor, along with Mayor Medina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

amendment allowing council members to appear at meetings remotely six times per year passes 4-3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16359"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20158,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16359\/revisions\/20158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16359"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}