Town Board looks to adopt law allowing board members to attend meetings virtually

The Riverhead Town Board will move to grant board members the ability to participate virtually during public meetings if they aren’t physically available to attend in person. 

The proposed local law allows members of a public body to participate online in the case of “extraordinary circumstances” as long as notice is given and a public body has an in-person quorum — which in the case of town governing bodies is three members. If a board member participates virtually, the public also has the right to participate virtually, the law states.

The local law was drafted by the Committee on Open Government, a state entity, after an executive order permitting government meetings to be conducted virtually because of the pandemic was not renewed. Town Board members on Thursday agreed to pursue passage of the local law, which requires a public hearing.

Under the Open Meetings Law, members of a public body have to attend in person at the designated place of the meeting in order to participate. That part of the law was suspended by executive order in March 2020 under the emergency declared by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo when the coronavirus pandemic struck New York. It allowed government entities to continue their business without officials having to risk exposure to the virus. State and local government meetings held virtually were required to be accessible to the public either through video or audio, and were required to be recorded and transcribed for future access.

The executive order had been renewed by Cuomo, and subsequently by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who opted to let the executive order expire on Sept. 13, prompting the Town Board to consider the local law drafted by the Committee on Open Government.

Deputy Town Attorney Dan McCormick said the Town Board would have to determine what defines “extraordinary circumstances” for the meeting to be accessible by board members virtually. He said it may include circumstances related to illness, disability or caregiving responsibilities.

“Those extraordinary circumstances have to be codified by the Town Board or the public body in a written document pursuant to written procedures,” McCormick said. “So that will be part and parcel if the Town Board or any other public body in the town wishes to go forward with this.”

Occasionally, Supervisor Yvette Aguiar and other officials have used Zoom to participate in meetings.

According to Aguiar, the rule would apply not just to the Town Board, but also to the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals. 

Although board members said they were in favor of the law, it wasn’t clear they knew exactly what was in it. Board members repeatedly said they were in favor of enhancing public participation by adopting the law, though the law drafted by the Committee on Open Government does not address public participation, except in the context of meetings attended virtually by board members.

“I’d be in favor of adopting the local law to keep it going on the way it is with videoconferencing,” Councilman Tim Hubbard said. “I think it’s convenient for people, especially for sometimes our two o’clock meetings, if they can’t physically make it here. They can still watch and participate. And it also allows us as board members, if we’re at a conference or somewhere else, that we could still participate and be part of the meeting.”

In an interview after the meeting, McCormick confirmed that the policy allowing the public to participate virtually in Town Board meetings is “town policy” unrelated to the local law now under consideration.

“The Town Board is contemplating inclusion of that particular policy in its Town Board rules statement,” he added.

While the Town Board has allowed the public to participate virtually in all aspects of Town Board meetings, the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals currently allow the public to participate virtually only during public hearings. The public cannot comment virtually on other agenda items such as resolutions or during “open” comment portions of the meetings, when members of the public attending in person can comment on any matter relating to one of those bodies.

McCormick said the Town Board does not set rules of procedure for the Planning Board or ZBA but they have the authority to set their own rules of procedure and could address virtual public participation in those rules.

A Freedom of Information Law request seeking copies of the current Town Board, Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals rules of procedure is pending.

Aguiar did not return a call requesting an interview Monday. An email to the supervisor got a response from Deputy Supervisor Devon Higgins, who said Aguiar was out for the day.

Riverhead Town has been televising meetings of the Town Board, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency on the cable television government access channel since 2017. The meetings are also live-streamed on the town’s website and recordings of the meetings are available there on demand. The town does not televise advisory committee meetings, but has occasionally televised other meetings such as the water forums, comprehensive plan update meetings and the supervisor’s “State of the Town” address.

The Town Board started taking live public comments through Zoom in June 2020, after a few kinks were worked out. The board saw backlash from residents when it tried to halt virtual participation in meetings in July 2021, when coronavirus cases were low. The next month, the board reinstated Zoom participation, but for public hearings only. At the start of 2022, the board announced that public access to meetings would be virtual only, due to a new surge in coronavirus cases. As case counts declined, in-person attendance resumed, but Zoom participation in Town Board meetings continued.

Aguiar announced in May that the board will “permanently” have virtual participation from then on, but the board took no action to codify the policy.