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Date: 4/4/2023
NORTHAMPTON — After experimenting with a hybrid formula throughout the month of March, the Northampton City Council will move forward with a mixture of hybrid and remote meetings for the next several months.
During their meeting on March 30, Council President Jim Nash and Vice President Karen Foster presented a schedule to the full council that outlines the format of City Council meetings up until Sept. 7.
The plan illustrates how the council meetings on April 13, May 4, 18 and June 1 will all be conducted in a hybrid fashion with budget discussions occurring during the latter two dates.
Meetings will then transition to a remote setting on June 15, July 13, and Aug. 17 and then back to a hybrid setting on Sept. 7. The council will then set a plan for their fall schedule during the Sept. 7 meeting.
The goal with this new schedule is to be as accessible as possible to the public during the budget season, according to Nash.
“Once we approve the budget and we’re into June, people can go away and still Zoom in over the summer,” Nash said, of the schedule. “But, in my view, we’re meeting our obligation to be available to hear the public around really significant matters like the budget.”
The new schedule comes after Gov. Maura Healey recently signed legislation that extended the ability for cities and towns in Massachusetts to conduct remote meetings until the end of March 2025.
The City Council experimented with a hybrid format for their three meetings in March after it was presumed that the state’s Open Meeting Law emergency provisions would end on March 31.
Up until March 2, the Northampton City Council had been meeting over Zoom since the start of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown in 2020.
After Healey’s decision to extend these remote provisions, which were borne out of the coronavirus pandemic courtesy of former Gov. Charlie Baker, cities and towns throughout the state now have more flexibility with how they conduct meetings.
The council generally acquiesced with the plan Foster and Nash presented during the March 30 meeting, but there is still a bit of ambivalence about the structure’s future. “I’m actually appreciating the in-person meetings more than I thought I would,” said Councilor Alex Jarrett. “So far, it’s been good, but I do sort of worry that…are the remote people feeling as engaged as we are, and is that impacting their ability to engage.”
Councilor Rachel Maiore, meanwhile, said she is fine going ahead with the schedule as presented but believes there are pros and cons to both hybrid and remote options. She explained that she also has some concerns with the hybrid format when it comes to accessibility.
“I think it will be an interesting experiment to see what really happens until September in terms of how much public comment we get in person compared to remotely,” she said.
The City Council currently meets in the council chambers when the meeting is hybrid.