During a Village meeting a member of our village board stated that” even though you pay taxes to the village unless you vote in the village you are not allowed to attend public hearings, village board meeting,nor speak during village board meetings.Ia thia true.
If not what recourse do we have?
The board member is completely wrong.
Anyone can speak at a public hearing whether they are a resident or not, taxpayer or not, registered voter or not, etc.
There is no legal right to speak at a village board meeting. It is up to the village board whether they adopt a policy to allow members of the public to speak. The village board can also establish their own rules regarding speaking. I have never heard of a local government adopting a rule that only voters are allowed to speak at a public meeting. I don’t think such a rule would survive a legal challenge.
Perhaps you can get a local news reporter interested in doing a story about this.
Below are opinions by the NY Committee on Open Government (a different organization than our Coalition):
