Hendersonville city boards, committees could no longer be able to meet remotely

With Gov. Roy Cooper's plan to soon end the state of emergency first instated March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hendersonville City Council discussed on Aug. 4 temporarily ceasing all remote meetings until more information is provided by the state.

In May 2020, the N.C. legislature amended the North Carolina Emergency Management Act to allow remote members to count toward a quorum and vote. It also specified a remote meeting as any meeting in which one or more members was participating remotely. When the state of emergency ends on Aug. 15, it is unclear whether or not it will be lawful for a board or committee member to participate remotely at all, even without counting toward a quorum or voting, despite this being lawful before the state of emergency.

"It calls into question, 'if everybody could do that before, then why was there a need to even adopt authority to do it if we already had that authority?''' Hendersonville City Attorney Angie Beeker said.

Meetings can still be streamed live and public comments can still be made remotely.

Many of the city council members expressed frustration at having to end remote meetings, including Jennifer Hensley, who said she does not wish to see anyone "penalized" for wanting to participate in city government even when they are unable to attend.

Councilmember Jerry Smith, who was participating remotely while on vacation, said he remembered being able to participate and even vote remotely prior to the state of emergency.

Council members also discussed the ways remote participation increased advisory and other board participation, and feared that forcing them to meet in person would result in fewer people showing up to meetings.

UNC's School of Government Frayda Bluestein said in a blog post titled "Public Meetings After the Lifting of the State-Level State of Emergency" that although it will be unlawful for elected boards to hold remote meetings, "for appointed and other boards there might still be an argument that they have authority for remote meetings under the electronic meetings provision in the open meetings law." However, in order to have consistency and ensure no laws are broken, the city council still suspended remote meetings for these boards.

A vote to amend or suspend the remote meeting policy will be made at a future meeting.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: City boards, committees could no longer be able to meet remotely