Williamstown School Committee Chairwoman Valerie Hall told the Selectmen her board had members who traveled.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Town boards and committees have a new tool available to facilitate participation by their members.

 

The Selectmen on Tuesday night decided to accept a rule developed by the attorney general's office that allows committee members to participate remotely when they are unable to physically attend a meeting.

 

The board was responding to a request from Williamstown School Committee Chairwoman Valerie Hall, who said members of her committee who might otherwise attend meetings this year have been unable to do so because of business travel.

 

Under Massachusetts law, public bodies can utilize speaker phones or — if available — video conferencing to allow participation by members who are unable to attend, provided there is a quorum of board members physically present at the meeting.

 

The Selectmen adopted the commonwealth's rule with two further provisions: that the remote participant bears the burden of any costs (i.e. overseas phone charges or roaming fees) and that individuals can only participate remotely once every four meetings.

 

The former restriction was prompted by a recommendation from Town Manager Peter Fohlin.

 

"I think the Selectmen should think about the extremes, and the reason I would hope the board would require the absent person bear the cost of remote participation is otherwise you will find yourself someday with a long-distance call from Uzbekistan," Fohlin said. "That's — I think — not what everyone is signing up for."

 

The policy adopted on Tuesday gives individual committees and boards the option to allow remote participation. Some boards may choose never to allow it for its members.

 

"The Planning Board might say, 'We always have these maps and plans spread out to consider; you really have to be here to participate,' " Fohlin said.

 

There is one board in town that already routinely uses remote participation: the Prudential Committee, which oversees the Williamtown Fire District. But the Prudential Committee is a separate elected entity that does not answer to the Selectmen and is not part of the town government.

 

Although the Selectmen's decision to adopt the policy was unanimous, several board members expressed concerns about remote participation in discussion leading to the vote.

 

"It's less than ideal," Chairwoman Jane Allen said. "I understand there are times when a person can be there remotely ... but having experienced it for many years on several boards, it's just the engagement is less. If a person doesn't press mute, there are always distractions. And there are technical difficulties. ... They do happen.

 

"I can't stress that enough about being physically present when possible," Allen added, referring to a passage in the AG's rule.

 

Selectman David Rempell suggested a hypothetical that highlighted the AG's provision that board chairmen are responsible for deciding whether a member's "physical attendance [is] unreasonably difficult."

 

"The idea that this policy could be used by the chair in a political matter ... if a chair knows a person who wants to participate remotely is going to vote in a particular manner and it's the chairman's prerogative to say, 'I believe you could be here,' "Rempell said, adding with tongue in cheek. "Not that that would ever happen in Williamstown."

 

Rempell said could see good and bad in the remote participation rule.

 

"We have a number of people in the past who have been on boards who have gone south in the winter," he said. "Should we do something to allow those folks to continue on boards or allow them to serve on boards that they may not have felt they'd be eligible to serve on? I have mixed feelings about that.

 

"I agree with Jane. We lose a lot when someone is not there physically to participate."

 

Hall asked the Selectmen to consider the cost to the town of silencing voices that may have the occasional unavoidable conflict for business reasons.

 

"I have members this school year who travel," Hall said. "Two different times I've had members who were willing to call in from wherever they were.

 

"When I have members who are that interested ... I would like to appreciate what they're giving to our committee and our community."

 

In other business on Tuesday night, the board approved a temporary license to allow Berkshire Winery to sample and sell wines during Berkshire Grown's Holiday Markets on Nov. 24 and Dec. 15 in the Williams College's Towne Field House. And the board OK'd the 2014 common victualler licenses for a number of local establishments.

 

In his Town Manager's Report, Fohlin reported that town officials attended a Nov. 4 kickoff meeting for the design of the Mohawk Bike/Pedestrian Trail Project at the offices of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.

 

The BRPC has access to $701,000 in grant money to design a 6.5-mile trail between Williamstown and North Adams. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation hopes to break ground on the project in spring 2016, Fohlin reported.