MA Towns Wait, Hope State Lawmakers Will Extend Remote Meeting Rules

BOSTON — The state legislature is expected to extend the condition allowing remote access and participation to municipal buildings as it is set to expire this Friday, July 15.

Both the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives passed bills that would extend the remote meeting rules. The bill passed by the Senate will extend remote participation to Dec. 15, 2023, and the House bill includes a provision to mandate remote access for all government meetings starting April 1, 2023.

If both the Senate and House can agree on these bills, cities, and towns will be required to continue or start providing virtual access to municipal meetings.

If they can't agree, then starting Friday, July 15, all public meetings will need to take place in person in locations that are open and accessible to the public with at least one quorum of the public body in attendance.

While most communities appear to be in favor of the bill, the Massachusetts Municipal Association claims that if there is no funding set aside for these bills, the mandate included in the House bill could cause trouble for local governments who struggle with technology such as Zoom.

"The costs of technology, equipment, staff, and necessary space to run all of these public meetings ... in a hybrid fashion is simply untenable," the Massachusetts Municipal Association said in a statement.