Most Stonington Board And Commission Meetings Will Continue To Be Conducted Virtually

From the Town of Stonington:

September 10, 2020

We wanted to share an update on the status of Board and Commission meetings. As we are still restricted to only 25 people indoors, per the Governor’s Executive Order, we are recommending that most meetings continue virtually until this limit is modified.

The rational is that if a Board or Commission holds an in-person meeting they are legally limited to 25 people in total. If more members of the public come to a meeting and exceed 25 people, they would have to immediately stop the meeting and repost for a future date that was virtual (or wait for the 25 person limit to be increased).

With that said, we are asking Boards and Commissions to make their own decisions as they are the most familiar with attendance at their meetings. We know some Boards and Commissions consistently have no, or very few, members of the public attend. So long as they are following the State’s rules for indoor events set forth in the DECD Sector Rules for Reopening, certain Boards and Commissions may opt for an in-person option. However, it must be noted that any in-person meeting for not must still provide a virtual dial-in option so we are not unfairly limiting public participation in public meetings.

We are continuing to working with our more than 30 Board and Commission to update the Town calendar to reflect the current status of all meetings. Thank you for your patience as we work through this challenging time. If you have questions on an upcoming meeting, please call us in the First Selectman’s office (860-535-5050) and we are happy to help provide the most updated information we have, in case it has not yet made its way to the calendar.

Thank you again so much for working with us during this challenging new time- and thank you for staying engaged.

This press release was produced by the Town of Stonington. The views expressed here are the author’s own.