HOULTON, Maine — Until the town adopts a new ordinance governing the rules of remote meetings, all Houlton boards must now hold their gatherings in open in-person session.
As of July 31, any municipality that does not have an ordinance in place detailing a method of participation for remote meetings is no longer allowed to conduct town business in an online forum.
Houlton introduced a potential new ordinance during a July 26 council meeting, but several councilors expressed concerns about the document and how it could potentially allow a board member to attend every meeting in a virtual manner.
“In our charter, you can miss three unexcused absences, show up for one meeting, and then miss three more,” said Councilor Dennis Harmon. “Technically you could only attend about 10 percent of our meetings and still be a council member.”
Harmon suggested that language be added to the ordinance that stipulates that a person may only attend 20 percent of meetings in a virtual format.
Municipalities and school boards in Maine turned to the online application Zoom to conduct meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. In some rare cases, Zoom meetings were hacked by outside groups who posted obscene images during the meetings.
Houlton’s town council meetings, for the most part, have gone smoothly, albeit with the normal technical issues of audio cutting out, microphones not picking up voices and occasional buffering problems with internet speeds.
Councilor Sue Tortello said that as the document was written, the new policy would only pertain to committees and boards whose members were appointed by the town council. She questioned if the new ordinance would cover members of the Board of Budget Review.
“With the language, I don’t see how it does,” she said. “We need to make sure we have the language correctly the first time we pass this. I think we need to get some of our ducks in a row.”
An attempt was then made by councilor Harmon to table the reading, but it was noted by Nancy Ketch, the town’s community development director who served as acting town manager in the absence of both town manager Marian Anderson and assistant town manager Cathy O’Leary no votes could be taken on the measure since it was only a first reading.
“I think you would have to wait and table it after the Aug. 9 public hearing,” she said.
Council Chairman Chris Robinson called the ordinance a “flawed document.”
“This [document] is a good start, but we need to look into this a little bit more,” Harmon added. “The only impact is no more remote meetings until we pass this.”
The council will revisit the matter, and also hear from the public, at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Aug. 9.
