Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 2/28/2023
NORTHAMPTON — With Open Meeting Law provisions projected to change a month from now, the Northampton City Council will experiment with a hybrid meeting formula for their three meetings in March.
Back in July, former Gov. Charlie Baker extended the state’s Open Meeting Law emergency provisions to March 31 of this year. The provisions, borne out of the coronavirus pandemic, allow public bodies to continue spearheading meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present.
With those remote provisions most likely expiring at the end of March, and no indication of an extension, Northampton will experiment with the hybrid option. This means that people can join the meetings remotely or attend the meetings in-person at the council chambers.
“One of the things that we are talking about doing is…having our two March council meetings be in a hybrid format so we can work out some of the details before it’s imposed upon us,” said Council President Jim Nash, during a Feb. 2 meeting.
During the council meeting on Feb. 16, Nash and Council Vice President Karen Foster presented a formal hybrid meeting plan for the month of March with a slew of guidelines they plan to loosely follow.
“We’re not aiming for perfection here,” said Nash. “We’re hoping to get to a place where we pretty much mirror what a hybrid situation would look like.”
The document proposed by Nash and Foster depicts eight different guidelines for the month of March. According to Nash, these are not formal rules, but rather “expectations.”
One such guideline around public participation drew some concern from Councilor Stanley Moulton. The original guideline regarding this topic stated that, “whenever public participation is allowed, members of the public who are present in council chambers will be recognized to speak before those joining the meeting remotely.”
Nash explained that this guideline was borne out of a conversation he had with Easthampton City Council President Homar Gomez, who has been spearheading hybrid council meetings for several months now.
“He felt that it was good to show preference to the people who have made the effort to come into the room,” said Nash. “It would be helpful for me and Vice President Foster…to focus on the comment in the room and then move to the comment that’s remote.”
Moulton, however, expressed concern that this would read as partisanship for in-person attendees. “I appreciate recognizing the people who have made the effort to come to City Hall, but there are people who cannot make that effort,” said Moulton. “I’m concerned about a bias against the public who’s remote.”
The other concern, which Foster brought up, is the fact that public comment in Northampton is limited to an hour-and-a-half, which may mean remote participants who speak last may face a disadvantage if that time obstacle arises.
Because of these issues, Nash agreed to change the guideline, meaning he will now alternate between in-person participants and remote speakers throughout the public comment section of the meetings.
The proposal also included guidelines that state that a presiding officer and a quorum of at least five councilors must be present in-person to convene in a public manner, that the mayor and city staff are welcome to join council meetings remotely or in-person, and that members of the public are welcome to join the proceedings remotely or in-person.
A review of this hybrid meeting formula will be conducted at the March 16 meeting. At that point, according to the proposal, the council may want to consider advocating for a particular format with the State House.
The three meetings in March are March 2, 16 and 30. Readers can find the council agendas on the city website.