By Anita Schwerner
On July 15 I emailed the select board requesting that Public Comment be an item on the July 24 meeting agenda, but it was not placed on the agenda. I will try again for the August 7 agenda. If you want to be able to ask questions or voice concerns at a select board meeting, email the select board with your request that Public Comment be included on the August 7 select board meeting agenda.
All town meetings are hybrid and the recording of the meeting is supposed to be posted on ctsbtv.org Recently I wanted to watch a meeting that I missed and discovered that the June 30 meeting and most of the July meetings have not yet been posted. Only the July 10 Select Board meeting and the July 21 Board of Assessors meeting are there. To have an informed electorate it is important that all meetings be available in a timely manner.
Restoring “Public Comment” as a standing Select Board agenda item in Stockbridge should be a town priority. Although it is not a requirement under the Open Meeting Laws, many towns include it as good practice to allow residents to be heard. Stockbridge has definitely fallen behind. Sending an email after a meeting is not the same as going to the microphone to speak about issues of concern or importance.
Our select board members are elected to represent the voters. They both ran for office promising to listen to their constituents. Select board members don’t need to have immediate answers to questions raised. They can table the answer to the next meeting. If there are privacy issues that they cannot discuss they can say that and refer the speaker to resources for answers.
In 2023 the MA Supreme Judicial Court in Barron v. Kolenda ruled that “boards may not restrict the speech of participants based solely on the viewpoint or message of a speaker or the board’s desire to avoid criticism.” Ultimately the court ruled, “although civility can and should be encouraged in political discourse, it cannot be required.”
Including Public comment would show an openness to feedback from the community. Setting reasonable expectations for public comments such as time limit and the need to be recognized by the chair can help maintain decorum. Our neighboring towns including Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, West Stockbridge, Egremont and Sheffield and Pittsfield all have some form of Public Comment on their Select Board agenda. Examples include:
Great Barrington – “Citizen Speak Time is an opportunity for the Selectboard to listen to town residents, property owners and business owners. Topics of particular concern or importance may be placed on a future agenda for discussion. This time is reserved for town residents, property owners and business owners only unless otherwise permitted by the chair and speakers are limited to 3 minutes each.”
Lenox’s agenda has “Citizen’s Open Forum (Lenox residents are welcome to address the board for up to two minutes)”.
The standing agenda item “Public Comments” has disappeared from Stockbridge Select Board agendas and it is extremely important to bring it back in order to further transparency, an informed electorate, the feeling of being heard and for the overall good of the town.
