Board of Aldermen 03-16-2020 Page 30
Alderman O’Brien
OK when we came up as the City Charter and when things stepped back in a long-ago era, the
business of the City should be conducted in public. But today the public means something totally
different. We have our good friends at Channel 16 which are taping this exact meeting right now
which is out there to the public. That was never founded or thought about in the original charter and
maybe as we address this issue, maybe we should look into something along those lines because it is
not like we are behind the closed door. We do make the meetings public, whether the person is
actually present or they can have access to live stream and | think Aldermanic Meetings are on a
couple times a day. So there is a lot to be said there of the streaming of these meetings.
Attorney Bolton
Of course locally we don’t have the power to change this State Statute. But if anyone knows any
elected official who goes to Concord on a regular basis.
Alderman O’Brien
And who would Corporate Counsel be thinking of?
Attorney Bolton
This would be something to look into. Obviously, some of these people didn’t have enough foresight,
but maybe next time it could be gotten right.
Alderwoman Kelly
| have a couple of comments; let’s see if | can organize this. | was going to ask the same question
Alderman Dowd asked. | was concerned about moving into Budget Season and potentially canceling
meetings. So | don’t know if you want to speak to that. But! also was concerned about the fact that
we don’t have our Aldermanic Chamber right now which | assume also gives us some technical issues
in terms of being able to call in.
Alderman Dowd
We were scheduling meetings. That’s why | mentioned the schools because to me, | don’t want to
bring 100 people into a school that has been thoroughly cleaned and now you have got to start over
again. It doesn’t make sense. So we do have some leeway in dates for the Budget. But we would be
pushing it for the last date. So we can move some of these meetings off, while we think about how we
are going to handle meetings and maybe we can petition the State to see if somebody up there can
make a logical decision and you know get a little more clarity. | mean | thought | heard from the
Association that they were thinking that if you televise the meeting and you had a call in for public
comment to a phone in that meeting, that you could meet some of these requirements. | mean, you
know, talking about an emergency well to me this is about as big of an emergency is you can possibly
get when you are talking about public health and possibly killing people, | mean you know if we don’t
do it for that, what the heck would we ever do it for? So | think we need to petition the State and get
some clarity and in the interim | am going to push some of the Budget Meetings off.
