Florida council meeting interrupted by robot voice blurting out bizarre ‘older women’ comment: ‘Say what?’
A Florida city council gathering burst into laughter when a poorly timed and inappropriate comment blared over the PA system while a woman was about to speak.
The hilarious incident happened about halfway through Tuesday’s Seminole County Board of County Commissioners meeting in Sanford when Community Service Director Allison Thall started speaking at the podium during a livestream.
Thall, 61, was introducing herself to the board and was about to speak on the affordable housing annual report when a humanoid, robotic male voice blared out, “Older women are often perceived as difficult to turn on.”
A bewildered Thall stopped dead in her words and glared over at the speaker.
“What? Say what???” a random woman shouted off camera before breaking out into laughter.
“Are you talking about me?” a red-faced Thall said, letting out a light chuckle, seemingly finding humor in the awkwardness.
While those in the audience had trouble containing their laughs, District 3 Commissioner Lee Constantine looked at Thall and told her, “That was a good presentation!”
“Where did that come from?” Someone off camera asked as the laughter continued in the room.
“I don’t know,” Constantine replied.
The embarrassing but funny moment had a lasting impression on Commissioner and Vice-Chair Andria Herr.
“I will remember this day forever, forever,” Herr yelled into her microphone.
Seminole County Board Chairman Jay Zembower asked Constantine to “please” have IT “deal with Commissioner Constantine’s technology?”
“I think just deal with Commissioner Constantine. I don’t think it’s the technology,” Lockhart joked as the amusing moment still had people chuckling in the audience.
“You had to have touched something,” Lockhart tells Constantine, to which he replies, “I touched that,” while pointing down at the keyboard on his laptop.
As the laughter in the meeting began to subside, board chairman Jay Zembower told Thall to “try this again.”
“And trust me, I’m certain this was not directed towards you,” he told the community service director.
“Okay, I’m not sure if I should say thank you or…” Thall replies as the room once again breaks out into a light giggle.
“None of us were, we were all going, ‘stop it already,'” Zembower said.
Even with the awkwardness, Thall still found the humor in the situation.
“That was great, thank you,” she tells the board before starting her address over.
The city of Sanford is about 26 miles outside of Orlando.
