For the second time, the Jefferson County Commission’s meeting livestream was hacked, portraying pornographic images to those watching. A quick shutdown of the system addressed the immediate problem; however, a long-term solution needs to be found and found quickly.

While the county’s IT team attempts to find said solution, the immediate available option is for the commission’s meeting to no longer be available to the watching public—and that will be problematic as the format has become a way for the community to take part in and watch the actions of the commission.

While it is not required that meetings be broadcast live, several years of using the feed have made the practice accepted and expected. In addition, it has been several years ago that Commission members determined that rather than meeting once per week to conduct county business, they would instead meet only twice per month, limiting the public’s access to their representatives. The determination to go to twice per month was made pre-Covid, so the pandemic had nothing to do with the then-commissioners’ belief that they did not need to meet every week in a public forum.

The current commission may need to take a look at returning to a more robust public schedule—meeting more frequently in a public setting, especially if the fix for the computer hacking problem takes longer than a few weeks. Currently there are two meetings per month, one daytime hours and one evening. A return to weekly meetings, adding an additional evening meeting, would open the door for more public participation and observation and may lessen the time some of the more recent marathon meetings have lasted.

These elected officials do receive a full salary and doing the county’s business in public only two days per month leaves one to question what they are doing to earn their keep. Commissioners and staff need to work to solve the online issue, but commissioners also take the time necessary to do the job for which they were elected.