In August 2022, community advocate David Goebel filed a written public comment objecting to the Port of Seattle's switch from standard Zoom meetings to a restricted 'Webinar Panelist' format for its SeaTac Airport Stakeholder Advisory Round Table (StART) meetings. Under the new format, members of the public are invisible 'observers' with no chat access, and can only speak for two minutes when their microphone is briefly enabled by the facilitator. Goebel argues this change fundamentally reduces transparency and genuine public engagement compared to the previous format, where all participants—including the public—were visible to meeting members.Open full document
Notes
David Goebel of Vashon Island Fair Skies submits written public comment criticizing the Port of Seattle’s StART meeting transition from conventional Zoom to a Zoom Webinar Panelist format. He argues the new format reduces public transparency and engagement by making observers invisible to StART members and limiting their participation to a two-minute comment window. The comment includes screenshots contrasting the previous open Zoom format with the new restricted webinar format.