Poll: Should Town Officials Participate and Vote in Meetings Remotely?

On Nov. 18, Attorney General Martha Coakley's Office introduced new regulations under the Open Meeting Law that authorizes remote participation in meetings under certain circumstances.

"The purpose of these new regulations is to promote greater participation in government, while upholding the main purpose of the Open Meeting Law – transparency,” said AG Coakley in the announcement. “While in certain extenuating circumstances members of public bodies are permitted to participate remotely, we encourage physical attendance when at all possible.”

Coakley stresses the practice of remote participation by town officials must be adopted by a majority vote from the town's government, in this case, the Medfield Board of Selectmen. 

"The practice of remote participation must be adopted by the chief executive officer of the municipality for local public bodies, or by a majority vote of the public body for state, county and regional public bodies, before public bodies can use it," Coakley said. "If remote participation is adopted, under the new regulations, members of public bodies may use audio or video conferencing to participate in meetings when physical attendance is unreasonably difficult due to personal illness, personal disability, emergency, military service, or geographic distance."

A vote of approval by Medfield selectmen of adopting the rule would allow all boards and committees in town to participate through the remote participation regulations.

So Medfield, we want to know ...

Today's question: Should Medfield's Board of Selectmen adopt AG Coakley's new regulations under the Open Meeting Law that allows town officials to participate and vote in meetings remotely?