The current law in NY is that legal notices must be printed in a newspaper.
Below is a link to a resource which will give you more information. Several years ago a bill was introduced in the state legislature to eliminate the paper requirement and just do online. As legal notices are an important revenue source, newspapers oppose the legislation and it has not passed.
https://www.pnrc.net/2023/07/11/is-new-york-the-wild-west-of-public-notice/
Section 103(d)(1) of the Public Officers Law, commonly referred to as the Open Meetings Law allows for anyone to record a public meeting. The public’s right to record meetings has been part of the Open Meetings Law since 2011.
(d) 1. Any meeting of a public body that is open to the public shall be open to being photographed, broadcast, webcast, or otherwise recorded and/or transmitted by audio or video means.
The town supervisor is incorrect in his position. You or anyone else has the right to record a public meeting.
Linked below is an opinion from the NY Committee on Open Government, which may be helpful as well.
https://docsopengovernment.dos.ny.gov/coog/otext/o5335.html
The town is required to hold one public hearing during the preparation of the plan and one public hearing prior to the adoption of the plan.
If they held a public hearing and made revisions, they are not required to have another hearing due to changes being made.
In 2022, the Open Meetings Law was amended to allow for members of a public body to participate remotely, as long as a quorum of members are present in person.
In order for members to participate remotely, a town must pass a resolution which establishes rules for allowable “extraordinary circumstances” when participating remotely is allowed. As part of passing a local law or resolution on this topic a public hearing must be held.
I don’t think the intention of this new law is to allow an elected official to go to Florida for the winter or to take another job out of state.
It will be interesting to see how the town writes up what constitutes “extraordinary circumstances”. Your local news media may be interested in this.
What was the reason given for the executive session?
A specific reason has to be provided for an executive session motion to be proper. A proper motion could be to meet in executive session to discuss “matters which will imperil the public safety if disclosed”. There must be a quorum of members present in person to vote on the executive session motion. As the public does not have the right to attend an executive session, the executive session itself could be done by Zoom.
If an executive session was held, the board always has to return to continue or end the meeting in public.
The executive session occurred during the 5:30 pm work session, did the 7pm board meeting occur?
In order for a meeting to occur with some board members present in person and some appearing by Zoom, the town is supposed to have adopted a local law which puts forth what constitutes “extraordinary circumstances” for a board member to appear virtually instead of in person. If a board member is going to appear by Zoom then the public is supposed to be given the opportunity to observe the meeting by Zoom as well.
I am a reporter working on a story today about the Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner proposing an ordinance related to public comment.
If approved, the ordinance would require people to provide their legal name and proof of residence, employment or that they own property in the city in order to speak. The ordinance would further limit a 30 minute comment period (4 minutes for each speaker) to residents first, then employees and then property owners.
I would love your comment on this for my article. Have you ever seen other communities do this?
Link to the ordinance
Question from a reporter:
The Port Chester Board of Trustees appointed an Advisory Form-Based Code Study Committee at their last meeting.
When I went to write about it, I was taken aback by the following section, which states:
“Each member shall not appear at a public meeting or provide public comments, as a member of the committee or as a citizen, to at any time criticize, question, comment or provide insight about the Board as to its actions on any matter related to the charge of the Committee, unless directed by the Board.”
Another distressing but not as egregious section of the resolution reads:
“Members of the committee “shall each acknowledge that they will serve to the best of their ability, fairly, honestly and impartially, without regard to personal employment or financial gain, without regard to their own social or political position or beliefs and without regard to their own personal and familial benefit, and each shall acknowledge that such service is at the pleasure of the Board and in a strictly advisory capacity.”
I would appreciate your opinion on this.
