On Dec. 18, the Greenfield City Council took an action meant to, as one city councilor put it, “integrate disability justice” into local governance: passed an ordinance codifying remote access to its municipal meetings.
The state opened up the possibility of remote access to public meetings — from city councils and school committees to planning boards — amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Those temporary provisions allowing for remote access to public meetings are set to expire, however, on March 31. Gov. Maura Healey had signed the extension of hybrid access for governance meetings in 2023.
State lawmakers have not passed any law guaranteeing hybrid access to the public. One bill, H. 4771, known as “an act to modernize participation in public meetings,” has been stuck in committee since June of last year. That has raised concerns among a coalition of groups, including the Disability Law Center, the Boston Center for Independent Living, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, and several press organizations.
“Hybrid access to public meetings has been transformative for people who previously faced barriers to exclusively in-person meetings — people who are immunocompromised or have a disability, people who have young children or care for disabled or aging family members, people with limited transit options, and more,” the groups said in a statement. “Universal hybrid access is essential going forward.”
In the early months of 2023, the ACLU of Massachusetts conducted a survey of every city council, select board, and school committee in the state which found that “more than half of those bodies are already conducting fully hybrid or live-streamed meetings.” But some, it seems, are doing so by updating the rules of their public bodies rather than passing an ordinance — a more permanent step guaranteeing remote access in the future.
That’s what Greenfield has now accomplished. City Councilor Katherine Golub presented the ordinance to the council with an amendment. The amendment added language to ensure that all municipal hybrid meetings are “in accordance with the American Disabilities Act.”
“What inspired it is an attempt to integrate disability justice into how I see the world and govern,” Golub said. “And an attempt to make our governing as participatory as possible.”
Golub said that hybrid meetings benefit a variety of people, allowing them to participate in their local governance. She said that hybrid meetings not only increase accessibility for those with disabilities, but for single caretakers of children like herself as well.
Golub isn’t the only local city councilor facing that reality. In Northampton, for example, City Councilor Rachel Maiore told The Shoestring in 2023 that as a single mother of three, remote and hybrid meeting structure were “pivotal” to her ability to continue to serve on the body.
“Our Council meetings can often run four or five hours, so for me having to secure childcare and take out food would be prohibitive,” she said at the time.
Golub said she steered and organized the developmental meetings for the ordinance. The initiative to codify hybrid meetings was presented to Golub by Massachusetts ACLU organizing strategist, Javier Luengo-Garrido, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Full disclosure: Luengo-Garrido is on The Shoestring’s advisory board, which does not have any editorial role in our independent newsroom.) But the collaborative development of the ordinance started at the beginning of last year. Over the course of the year, Luengo-Garrido proposed language on behalf of the ACLU for the ordinance to Golub. Golub then brought the language to various city officials who provided input and feedback that were “integrated and addressed.”
Luengo-Garrido said that due to the pandemic, many meetings have been held remotely. The ACLU noticed an increased engagement of people with mobility issues, disabilities, and single parents to not only participate by attending meetings, but to give testimony when given the opportunity to do so in their home. He said that elected officials in Greenfield were “highly interested” in keeping civic participation accessible and that their willingness enabled them to work proactively on the development of the ordinance.
Speaking on the broader impacts of increasing accessibility, Luengo-Garrido said that the passing of the ordinance aids in the understanding of “the ways those cities can work to protect minorities” as well as “helping people access city services” and “feeling comfortable in understanding that those cities and towns are welcoming communities.”
The ordinance was written in collaboration with various city officials, which included staff from economic development, the IT director, the communications director, and several others.
“It’s an example of our power to create change at a local level, especially when we collaborate well,” Golub said.
Golub said she reached out to Greenfield’s IT director, Fernado Fleury, prior to the start of the present mayoral administration and was “buoyed” by his enthusiasm and willingness to support the ordinance.
Fleury did not respond to requests for comment.
“Anytime you can include the public more is a wonderful thing,” Greenfield Mayor Ginny Desorgher said. “We have a huge senior population here … This allows them to participate in the meeting.”
Matt Conway, the communications director for the city of Greenfield, manages the recording of meetings for boards and commissions. Conway said that Golub worked to ensure that the ordinance was “effective, actionable, and something that the city could consistently execute and maintain.”
Conway said the establishment of hybrid meetings is a method of having increased public engagement. And having more opportunities for people to participate aids the city’s goal of consistent accessibility in a world still living with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city also established remote access for other governing boards, including the Board of Health, Planning Board, and the Historical Commission.
Conway said that there are also other benefits to hybrid meetings on top of increased accessibility.
“There’s nothing quite like having the actual archive of the meeting itself,” Conway said. “It’s of a great benefit to our residents, the city itself, and to anyone else looking to learn about Greenfield.”
That includes those looking to hold local governments accountable. Justin Silverman, the executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, told The Shoestring that having access to governance and the ability to engage with representatives is a “civil rights issue” and that access to hybrid meetings is “a matter of equity.”
It’s unclear, though, whether those efforts to increase democracy will stay at the local level or receive broader backing from state lawmakers and the governor. The coalition of organizations supporting continued statewide hybrid-access provisions, which included the ACLU of Massachusetts, warned back in April 2024 of the consequences of failing to extend those protections.
“The countdown is on: If lawmakers don’t act this session, people with disabilities or other reasons they can’t attend meetings will be completely shut out when city councils, select boards, or school committees decide to hold meetings exclusively in person,” the statement said. “Accessibility makes our democracy stronger, and we can’t afford to close the door on these perspectives and communities.”
Previously, Healey had put forward a bill that would have left decisions on hybrid meeting access up to individual municipalities — a proposal the coalition including the ACLU called “a major step backward.”
Golub said she would like to see hybrid meeting laws codified at the state level and expressed concern over the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump and its broad impacts.
“In a time of decreasing access for public participation at the federal level, I believe that we have a fierce responsibility to everything we can to protect public participation,” Golub said. “Our opportunity for doing that the most is on the local and state level.”
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