DELAWARE COUNTY – While the people of New York state are supposed to continue to stay home unless their job is designated as essential, town governments must figure out how to continue to meet and also comply with open meetings requirements.
Article 7 of the Public Officers Law has guidelines for remote meetings. “A public body that uses videoconferencing to conduct its meetings shall provide an opportunity for the public to attend, listen and observe at any site at which a member participates.”
In Walton, Supervisor Joe Cetta said, “The next meeting date for the town of Walton is scheduled for 13 April 2020. We will continue to monitor this issue and make a decision on how to conduct the meeting. If the guidance from the Governor and Public Health is to continue to maintain the distancing, we will conduct the meeting via ‘Zoom’ or another application. We will make the decision during the week of April 6 on a way forward.”
Davenport Supervisor Dennis Valente said last month’s meeting was cancelled. “This month, April 21, I am looking to use a telephone conference call. It is my understanding that the general public must have access to the meeting either live or have available a recording and minutes.”
Terry Yoder, the Unadilla town clerk, said meetings there will be held on Zoom.
In Franklin, Sonja Johns, the town clerk, said the town board meeting has been postponed until April 21.
Jeff Taggart, town supervisor, said the town bought a camera, with the possibility of Skyping the meeting, but they might simply cancel again and aim for the next meeting, scheduled for May 5.
“We’ve done everything we can over the phone. The board members have looked over the invoices for the month separately and I’ll be signing those tonight,” he said. “And I’m hoping to get crews back out sweeping and brush cutting in town by having four man split crews, with one week on, one week off, disinfecting equipment before and after using it, and keeping their distance from each other.”
Stamford Supervisor John Kosier said the April meeting was canceled, and they’re working with an IT adviser to find a secure way to do video conferencing.
Zoom has been the fast answer to a lot of organizations trying to continue meeting while maintaining social distancing. But it has security issues that are serious enough that, according to Techcrunch.com, the New York City School District has banned its use in distance learning, and is now transitioning to Microsoft Teams.
According to a report in the Washington Post, Nevada’s Clark County schools have also disabled Zoom and schools in Washington state and Utah are reassessing its use.
Zoom has also changed its security protocols after numerous users reported their meets were hacked by uninvited “Zoom bombers.”
Zoom’s chief executive apologized Friday for “mistakenly” routing some calls through China, a move that network security experts said could put supposedly-encrypted calls at risk of interception by the Chinese government. Zoom had claimed its service was end-to-end encrypted, and apologized, saying that, in fact, it was not.
