Dear Westminster Community,

I want to apologize to the Westminster community and our City Council for the unfortunate technical difficulties that prohibited the Monday evening Study Session from occurring. The meeting began as scheduled, but Staff quickly realized there were issues preventing the meeting from streaming to the public. Staff was unable to resolve the technical challenges, resulting in the adjournment of the meeting at 7:54 p.m.

We apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this caused for City Council and members of the community. The streaming of both City Council and Study Session meetings is an essential component of our City goal of transparent government. The items on Monday’s agenda were important topics and as such, will be added to upcoming meetings. The executive session will be rescheduled for Sunday, May 23, 2021.

Demands on our staff to present virtual and more accessible government are unprecedented. I’m proud that staff, who are not trained as audio and video experts, met the challenge of producing virtual city government on an almost flawless basis for more than a year. There have been occasions, such as May 17, where we failed to meet that demand. City staff will run diagnostics this week to understand exactly what failed on Monday night and where we need to improve.

While the global pandemic has had a devastating impact, one positive outcome is new opportunities for residents to virtually participate in their government. We deeply value this increased engagement and transparency; to that end, we fully intend to offer both live and virtual public meetings into the future and will make the necessary investments to ensure optimal success. We hope you will continue to join us.

Don Tripp

Westminster City Manager