Remote public meetings have been extended for two more years, to March 31, 2025, as part of the state’s supplemental budget bill, Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023. The prior authorization for remote public meetings was set to expire on March 31, 2023.
First authorized by an emergency order of the Governor in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown, this temporary amendment to the Open Meeting Law allows public bodies to meet remotely without the chair or any other member being physically present in a meeting location.
Public bodies may use a variety of platforms for remote meetings so long as the public has “adequate, alternative means of public access” that provide “transparency and permit timely and effective public access to the deliberations of the public body, including, but not limited to, providing public access through telephone, internet, satellite enabled audio or video conferencing or any other technology that enables the public to clearly follow the proceedings of the public body.”
Public bodies may hold purely remote meetings or “hybrid” meetings, where the committee meets in person and the public attends only through remote access. Individuals required to appear and present before a public body remotely must be given the same level of remote access as members of the public body (being promoted to “panelist” or “presenter”, rather than simply observing a livecast or participating through audio only.)
The statute contains an emergency preamble and therefore takes effect immediately.
Please contact a member of our Charter School Law Group if you have any questions about this legal update.
