You could hear a loud gasp as a pantless figure walked in front of a council member’s webcam during a recent council meeting. It’s not quite what you think.

Councilmember Ted Weinberg could not attend the March 7 Mercer Island City Council meeting on March 7. He was visiting the Cayman Islands with his sister, the duo on an apparent mission to rescue cats. Not wanting to miss the meeting, he joined online. But his forward-facing laptop camera was not turned on. Instead, the laptop’s exterior webcam was broadcasting the meeting.

A little over nine minutes into the meeting, a pair of bare legs walked in front of the webcam. You could hear at least one council member loudly gasp at what she saw.

Here’s what really happened

The full council video was not immediately posted to the council’s YouTube page, as is standard practice. But someone captured a screenshot of the incident, and it spread. It prompted some to conclude the council member was nude on the webcam. The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH received two tips explaining what they thought happened. The bare legs were edited out of the video when it was finally posted, likely fueling further speculation.

Was this another Jeffrey Toobin incident? Not quite.

I’m told the legs actually belonged to Weinberg’s sister, who was wearing shorts because the temperature hit the low 80s that day. You can make out the shorts if you pause the video at the right time. And moments later, a fully dressed Weinberg appears on camera, fully clothed, once he had worked out the settings on his laptop.

Despite being out of the country, Weinberg still wanted to participate in the meeting and perform his duties as a council member. And thanks to a laptop webcam malfunction, a mini-scandal ensued.

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