A proposed Boston city ordinance seeks to make remote participation in public meetings permanent
"Local democracy flourishes when every resident can participate and follow along in public meetings."
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Boston residents have been able to virtually call into public meetings to offer direct input to officials since the COVID-19 pandemic first thwarted the city from hosting in-person hearings last year.
Now, city councilors are proposing to make the practice a regular staple of city operations, even after the need for health safety precautions expires.
Councilors Lydia Edwards, Liz Breadon, and Julia Mejia have put forth an ordinance that, if passed, would mandate the city provide “adequate, alternative means of public access” for city-run meetings.
Phone calls, internet video, or other satellite audio or video conferencing could all be avenues for officials to allow public participation under the ordinance filed Wednesday.
While most public meetings were already broadcast online and on television, residents often had to attend in person to provide comments or testimony until pandemic-related precautionary measures required other options last year.
“Local democracy flourishes when every resident can participate and follow along in public meetings,” Edwards said Wednesday. “Our democracy today needs to meet people where they are, and they’re on their apps, they’re on social media, they’re on their computers, and they’re on their laptops. A lot of that is due to the pandemic that we’re in.
“What we have learned if anything, and there (are a)… few silver linings, is that we can adjust our government to meet people where they are,” she added.
Officials say the law would help many residents who are unable to attend in-person meetings due to school, work, and family obligations, and particularly those who are disabled or have other challenges to participating in person.
According to the ordinance proposal, resident engagement in local government “meaningfully increased” over the course of the pandemic in Boston thanks to remote participation.
“It just opened up a whole new level of access for our constituents,” Breadon said.
Other elements of the proposal seek to set parameters around ensuring language translation services are available to residents participating in or attending meetings, and around when meeting notices and agendas are posted beforehand.
While Mejia called the ordinance “a strong first step” to reduce barriers for public access to government, she said there is still more work to be done, including holding city meetings at times that are more convenient for constituents. (Regular council meetings are held at noon on Wednesdays, while committee hearings are typically held during the workday throughout the week.)
“We hope that the process and the hearing, (and the) working sessions will strengthen this ordinance, so that we’re creating the gold standard for good government,” Mejia said.
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