MONTPELIER — Vermont’s local, regional and school governing boards would be allowed to meet online without having to offer an in-person location until 2023, under a bill the Legislature has fast-tracked for consideration.
State law requires public boards to offer a physical meeting space with at least one official in attendance, even if everyone else is attempting to avoid this pandemic year by gathering online.
“It’s causing a lot of trouble,” said Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, noting members of such boards don’t always feel safe being the sole person inside an open public building, especially at night.
The Senate Government Operations Committee that White chairs has drafted a bill, SB 181, to allow boards to hold electronic meetings without a staffed in-person location until Jan. 15, 2023.
“During the continued spread of COVID-19 in the state of Vermont, public bodies should organize and hold open meetings in a manner that will protect the health and welfare of the public while providing access to the operations of government,” states the bill, which the Legislature is expected to consider next week.
The Vermont League of Cities and Towns, representing municipal leaders, is supporting the proposal.
“Our sense is that local officials really do want to be meeting in person — this is a measure that’s just protecting people’s safety in the meantime,” said Karen Horn, the league’s director of public policy and advocacy.
The state’s newly unveiled Climate Action Plan has recommended the use of online public meetings to reduce the use of fossil fuels by people otherwise driving to events, Horn added.
Norwich has developed a bit of a hybrid online/in-person workaround: a public access kiosk — a desktop computer with a webcam — at Tracy Hall that is available when any town board or committee meets. A town employee is nearby in a separate room in case anyone needs assistance, said Roger Arnold, chair of the Selectboard. It was set up in the wake of a COVID-19 outbreak at nearby Marion Cross Elementary School in November.
“The public access kiosk ensures that the warned location of Tracy Hall will be available to meet compliance of the open meeting law, but we will not have the issue of gathering in closed indoor spaces with poor indoor ventilation,” Arnold said.
No one has made use of it.
“That may be a result of the majority of the community having their material needs met and having access to the internet, but nonetheless both the open meeting law and also town officials make no assumption about the level of access so we feel that this ensures equal access to all,” he said.
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos has expressed guarded approval of the online-meeting bill.
“We think it’s OK to temporarily lift the physical meeting requirements,” Condos said, “but we’re not sure that it makes sense on a permanent basis.”
The secretary of state was voicing his thoughts at a recent online committee meeting when he lost his Zoom connection.
“I’m not even touching my computer, and I’ve been cut off twice,” Condos said upon returning. “This goes to the issue of remote access.”
But others say electronic meetings can boost public participation, as seen when such sessions were permitted without restriction during Gov. Phil Scott’s pandemic state of emergency from March 2020 to June 2021.
“In many cases, we saw more members of the public at fully electronic meetings than we did when that wasn’t an option,” said Catherine Dimitruk, executive director of the Northwest Regional Planning Commission.
The proposal comes as lawmakers are reviewing a separate bill, SB 172, to allow the state’s 246 municipalities to replace March 2022 town meetings with COVID-safe voting or warm-weather gatherings. That legislation, passed by the Senate on Wednesday, is set to be considered by the House next week.
Valley News Staff Writer Liz Sauchelli contributed to this report.