Skip The Sunset

There are very few bright spots when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, but one clear silver lining has been a new ability for stakeholders to tune into government meetings with more regularity — and not just because most of us have found ourselves largely homebound for the last five months, but because we have greater, easier access.

In mid-March, as stay-at-home orders were issued across New York State, local governments and school districts scrambled to find ways to host meetings virtually — a necessity to ensure that the bodies were following the state’s Open Meetings Law, offering public access to stakeholders while also providing a safe way for its membership to gather and do business. Some local governments and schools were already adept at recording and publishing those meetings, although COVID-19 added the challenge of needing to socially distance board members and those doing business with or offering comment before those bodies.

There have been successes and failures, as is to be expected, but one triumph is the ability for a larger percentage of its community to engage in these sessions as a result of digital access.

But there’s a risk of it being viewed as a novelty, and a nuisance, and fading away. We have already seen one board — the School Board in Westhampton Beach — host a public meeting without the ability to view it from a digital platform.

Particularly with so many people still wary of public outings, and others in demographics that face potentially deadly consequences if they contract COVID-19, it is incumbent on districts to continue to offer alternative ways for the public to view its meetings for the foreseeable future, and certainly beyond the executive order allowing these bodies to meet remotely, which has been extended several times and currently sunsets on September 4. Digital access to meetings shouldn’t sunset at all.