Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 6/1/2021
EASTHAMPTON – The city of Easthampton is planning to officially transition into a hybrid model for all boards and committees meetings after July 1.
On March 17, the Easthampton City Council unanimously voted to recommend Mayor Nicole LaChapelle allow continued remote participation for all boards and committees. LaChapelle agreed to the order on May 19.
Gov. Charlie Baker issued an executive order in March 2020 that suspended certain aspects of open meeting laws to allow municipal bodies to meet quorum requirements even if meetings were held remotely through electronic means as long as members of the public had sufficient electronic access to the proceedings.
Baker recently filed legislation to extend these provisions related to the commonwealth’s open meeting law until Sep. 1, which, according to the state website, will allow additional time to consider possibly permanent changes to the open meeting law to provide greater flexibility in conducting open meetings through electronic streaming.
According to LaChapelle, if this filed legislation passes, then Easthampton will open all public buildings on July 1, and proceed with the hybrid model for public meetings, as long as there is a quorum of the body physically present in person for the meeting to proceed.
“We will be prepared, and [the buildings] will be safe,” said LaChapelle, with regard to the reopening of public buildings. “We will go into a hybrid model and remote participation where board members can patriciate remotely if there is a quorum present where the meeting physically happens.”
The city is currently working on a healthy building program from the state that helps improve air quality and air circulation through municipal buildings including the Town Hall, which is something LaChapelle thought about even before the pandemic. According to LaChapelle, the city has been working with Honeywell to get this all situated.
“By July 1, in combination with vaccination rate and just what we could do with air scrubbers … I felt that by July 1, we could have proper protocols as well as healthy air,” said LaChapelle, who added that the city is working on other ways to improve air quality that will most likely occur after July 1.
LaChapelle said that she has noticed an uptick in public participation while meetings have been remote over the past year, and she added that it will be interesting to see what attendance will look like when they officially transition into the hybrid model.
“Our IT infrastructure on the city side and cybersecurity on the city side is very outdated, so we’re scrambling to get everything we need,” said LaChapelle. “Some of the meetings, they’ll be in city hall, but they’ll be in different rooms to make sure we have the proper technology.”
As far as the actual recording process goes, LaChapelle told Reminder Publishing that the city plans on sticking with the format they have now, including collaborating with Easthampton Media to record the majority of the meetings.
“We will transition to another remote participation tool that’s more secure,” said LaChapelle. “But we’re not planning to do that right away.”
For the time being, the city wants to make sure that, once municipal buildings open back up to the public, people will continue to know how to use the software and where to find the links to the meetings.
“Our board chairs have done a great job of transitioning,” said LaChapelle. “People have stepped up.”
Industry restrictions and the mask mandate will officially be lifted on May 29. The Massachusetts State of Emergency put into place last year will dissolve on June 15.