Municipalities to Resume In-Person Public Meetings

After nearly a year and a half of remote proceedings, Maine municipal, county, and school boards will soon be required to reconvene in-person public meetings. On June 21, Governor Mills signed into law L.D. 32, “An Act Regarding Remote Participation in Public Proceedings.” The new law finally authorizes some remote participation in meetings – an issue that was quite divisive in pre-COVID days – but it does put an end to the type of remote meetings we’ve all grown used to.

Because last year’s “omnibus bill” which authorized remote meetings will remain in effect for 30 days after the state of emergency ends on June 30, L.D. 32 (codified at 1 MRS § 403-B) will become the governing law as of July 30, 2021. Per this emergency amendment, members of a public body must be physically present for public proceedings, except when doing so is “not practicable.” The circumstances under which being physically present may not be practicable include: an emergency requiring the body to meet by remote means; illness; absence from the jurisdiction and significant difficulties traveling to attend in person. A body must adopt a written policy governing the conditions upon which its members and members the public may participate by remote means. This policy must provide the public an opportunity to attend by remote methods when members of the body participate in such a way. A body may not limit public attendance at a proceeding solely to remote methods, except in case of emergency.

During hybrid meetings, all votes taken must be taken by roll call vote. Additionally, notice must include information on how the public may access the proceeding using remote methods, as well as identify a location for members of the public to attend in person. The body must make all documents and other materials they consider during the meeting available to the members of the public who attend by remote methods to the same extent they are available to those who attend in person, as long as it does not incur additional costs.

Note that these requirements apply solely to members of the body and public. This does not limit municipal staff or counsel from continuing to participate remotely.

Maine State Primary Postponed – What to Do About Municipal Meetings and Budgets?

With the news that Governor Mills has ordered Maine’s primary election to be postponed until July 14, many towns are facing a dilemma about whether to postpone their own town meetings and elections. For those towns that like to coincide their local secret ballot meetings with the June primary, on top of the already existing health concerns, this is more reason to push local meetings off until July 14. But what to do about the budget? The Omnibus COVID Bill (LD 2167), provides that if the annual meeting is delayed beyond the date the annual budget is customarily approved, the prior year’s approved budget is deemed the budget for the ensuing year until a final budget is approved. The municipality may even commit taxes based upon last year’s budget, if needed. Schools are also authorized to operate according to the past year’s budget until subsidy numbers are finalized and the state of the emergency is over.

We take this budget extension provision to mean that the town may make operational and administrative expenses in the same amounts, in the same categories, as approved in the prior year. It may also allocate revenues as spelled out in the prior year’s budget. If capital improvement accounts were funded within the last year’s budget and the purpose remains, the town could choose to fund them on a month-to-month basis per the last budget. Alternatively, a cash-strapped town might wait to fund capital improvement accounts and eventually ask the budget meeting to reduce or eliminate the total allocation for the year.

While the COVID bill helps alleviate the pressure to hold budget meetings, it still leaves concerns about how to bridge the gap where the spending authorization remains unchanged from the prior year but revenues may have plummeted due to extended tax deadlines or other economic pressures. Many of our clients are using tax-anticipation notes, which can be borrowed on authority of the municipal officers without the need for town meeting. Others are relying on provisions in the last approved budget which allow the municipal officers to either spend from reserve accounts or appropriate from surplus to fund emergency expenses. In this economic environment, expenditures that previously would not have counted as emergencies probably do now meet that criteria. For towns that don’t have this type of spending authority or enough funding in place, there does remain the possibility of holding a small, special town meeting to make any approvals necessary. Anticipating low turnout, such a meeting still may legally be held, although the town will obviously have to take careful precautions to ensure that attendees are adequately spaced and protected.