Sunday, March 15, 2020

BY SPECIAL REQUEST: THE ACTUAL GOVERNOR'S ORDER REGARDING PUBLIC EXCLUSION FROM MEETINGS

On Friday March 13th, 2020, the village sent out the agenda for the 3/16 Board of Trustees meeting.  On that agenda are a number of items from housing to the Croton Point Avenue Project/Bike Lane--to name just two--which have received significant community pushback.

This is what the village board published:

    Monday, March 16---The agenda for the Board of Trustees Meeting and all associated backup materials are now available by clicking here. Pursuant to Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order #202-1 dated March 12, 2020 no members of the public will be allowed to attend Village Board of Trustee Meetings until further notice. The Public can view the meetings live and on demand on the Village website and Channel 78. If you wish to submit a public comment for the meeting please click here.

BY SPECIAL REQUEST, A RESIDENT HAS SENT IN THE FOLLOWING--as always, do your own due diligence-- For those of you wondering what the actual text of the Governor's "order" states--this is the relevant section:

  Article 7 of the Public Officers Law, to the extent necessary to permit any public body to meet and take such actions authorized by the law without permitting in public in-person access to meetings and authorizing such meetings to be held remotely by conference call or similar service, provided that the public has the ability to view or listen to such proceeding and that such meetings are recorded and later transcribed; 
 
Note that the order “permits” the board to exclude constituents from meetings. It does not require the board to exclude them. 


For those who have also asked--and the record demonstrates--submitting questions by e-mail does not necessarily lead to their being aired publicly in their entirety nor do they necessarily elicit relevant answers from the board.

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