Put seven elected officials in a room, and they’re bound to talk over each other.

Now put miles of distance and a spotty internet connection between them.

With a pandemic forcing the closure of City Hall and government boards to meet remotely, CityCable 5 has quickly adapted to new norms and become the only link between city government and the citizens it represents.

And though they’re (mostly) working from home, the team of four employees at CityCable 5 has scrambled to produce videos with up-to-date information on the city’s response to the coronavirus, broadcast virtual City Council meetings and share stories about city workers on the front lines.

“Do you ever have time to plan for something like this? No one expects a worldwide pandemic to hit,” said John Delay, the station’s director.

When City Hall closed to the public last month, Delay’s team knew it would have to find ways to keep government accessible to the public.

“We actually did pretty well at trying to adapt,” Delay said.

Complying with an emergency order from Gov. Jay Inslee that temporarily bars in-person meetings, the City Council now meets virtually through Cisco Webex – but CityCable 5 broadcasts the meetings as reliably as it always has.

Council President Breean Beggs is the only council member present in council chambers, with the other six participating remotely.

Aside from the occasional echo or crosstalk, the meetings are running smoothly.

But the first couple of attempts weren’t without hiccups and challenges.

The council typically takes public comment on legislative proposals during meetings, but ultimately chose to suspend those rules given the complexities of having people chime in remotely. Committee meetings, which used to be held in a smaller briefing room, are now held in the more technically equipped council chambers so they can be broadcast live.

And when connections fail, it’s Delay who answers the calls. Everyone has to get used to the limitations of the technology – there are going to be some audio interruptions or internet cutouts, he said.

“There’s not much I can do about your headset or your internet connection that’s bad,” Delay said.

Lights, camera, distance

Jeff Humphrey, the station’s only reporter and a longtime Spokane newsman, was on vacation in Hawaii and “came back to a different world” last month. It took a few too many planes to travel back, so he was forced to quarantine away from City Hall.

When Humphrey returned, CityCable 5 gave him the necessary equipment to work from home – and alone – and sent him into the field.

Humphrey has focused on stories that give viewers a behind-the-scenes window into the services the city is continuing to provide during the pandemic and the people who are on the front lines providing them.

“It’s changing so quickly, one thing that’s going to be constant is the need for the city to provide essential services,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey donned a hardhat, a reflective vest, and grabbed a pack of toilet paper to introduce a story as he delved this week into the “fascinating” world of wastewater treatment, a service that can’t possibly be provided on a work-from-home basis.

He’s also recently documented the city workers who have continued to collect trash unabated.

“For some people, having that trash disappear is just a sign of normalcy,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey is often a one-man crew as his colleagues have been busy helping the mayor and City Council produce announcements about the city’s response to COVID-19.

Telling a visual story and maintaining social distance are nearly incompatible.

On Thursday, Humphrey already was thinking about how he would film a story about Spokane C.O.P.S. volunteers as they delivered medication to the elderly.

“I want to be in the front passenger seat shooting across the steering wheel, but we cannot get in the car with them,” Humphrey said.

For his story on trash collectors, Humphrey had to install a remote GoPro camera in the truck and trail behind.

“It breaks my heart – the GoPro takes better video than I do,” Humphrey joked.

But Humphrey takes social distancing seriously, fully aware that he should follow the rules he’s preaching to others.

“As we ask people to follow these very difficult, not-natural rules about social distancing, if we get caught violating them, we’ll hear from people about it,” Humphrey said.

The CityCable 5 department is essentially four people in a single office with a single door.

It became clear quite early it would be easy for the virus to spread among everyone if a single person was infected.

“We immediately had to figure out how to do our jobs from remote locations and try to schedule people to where we’re not in there at the same time, and when we are we’re practicing social distancing,” Delay said.

To whatever extent possible, the department has staggered shifts.

The two videographers film what they can in person, but editing is done from home.

In addition to bending its routines to a modified Spokane City Council schedule, CityCable 5 has increased its production of informational videos.

It films a daily COVID-19 update with Mayor Nadine Woodward and other public service announcements – even an instructional video on how to create household cleaner from scratch, starring members of the City Council.

“The cog had some rough spots in it to start off, but we’re moving smoothly now,” Delay said.

The work of providing a window into city government will continue.

“People should see what’s happening,” Delay said.