Board of Aldermen 03-16-2020 Page 27
Alderman Dowd
So City Hall is closed, the schools are closed. Any consideration been given to the meetings of the
Board of Aldermen, the Committees, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board and every other
Committee that’s in the City. If we are trying to avoid large public gatherings, you know, something
has got to be done.
Director Kates
As part of the recommendation that | presented to the Mayor, one of the things that we had discussed
was that at a minimum we should be canceling any meeting that doesn’t require - is it required by a
statute, local ordinance, charter? Any of those types of meetings should be canceled. In those cases
where we have a meeting that is required by one of those, an RSA or a local ordinance, one of the
things that did come out from the Governor as sort of a guide as part of the State of Emergency Order
that went out was around provisions to conduct meetings in compliance with 91A but still dealing with
the emergency situation.
| Know you guys were talking about it a little before the meeting had started so | don’t know what the
interpretation is here but | know what the State Emergency Operation Center has been pushing to us
is to enable a meeting to still continue. It still must be published. The location must be known by the
public but the person who is leading that, the Chairperson of that Committee, could waive the
requirements for a quorum. Then everybody else would be able to participate via some sort of remote
access. But! don’t know what the interpretation is locally as to whether we can continue that or not.
But those were the recommendations that were made to the Mayor and | think that would at least
prevent as much as possible those types of large gatherings so that we can follow what we are trying
to preach across the entire City.
Mayor Donchess
So as we looked at what is really required, if you look at State Law, it is basically the Board of
Aldermen and that’s a City Ordinance twice a month, Planning Board, ZBA, plus the Finance
Committee is really the things that are required by Ordinance or by Law.
Alderman Dowd
So there are six of us on the Board of Aldermen that according to all the guidelines are more at risk
than others so we could call in.
Mayor Donchess
Yes.
Alderman Dowd
And can the call-in handle 6 or 7 people.
