[Massplanners] Opening and Continuing Public Hearings with no quorum

[Katrina O'leary]

Ken,
I'm not sure if what we do is legally the right thing.  I try and be logical about our public hearings. Hopefully someone will let me know if I should change my ways.

If one of my boards had advertised a public hearing on a certain date and then discovered that we did not have the necessary quorum to conduct business at the first meeting, the chair would announce that due to a lack of quorum the hearing will be continued to a certain date/place/time.  If you know you will have a lack of quorum before the meeting - repost the agenda with the note that the hearing will be continued to a certain date/place/time.

Another scenario is that we have scheduled a public hearing and a snowstorm/flooded building/etc. forces us to cancel the meeting.  We post signs on the door of the building letting anyone that shows up know that the hearing will be continued to a certain place/date/time. We also repost the agenda online with the cancellation notice and the new date/place/time.  That will let anyone that received an abutters notice or saw the legal ad and showed up at that first meeting know the new time/place of the continued hearing.  Even if we offered a hybrid meeting option, I would still continue the hearing because the hearing was advertised as offering both attendance options - in person and online; and the in person portion has been cancelled.

I always ask myself the question - "Is there a way for the public interested in this application to know when/where any continuation of the hearing will take place?"

I feel that if someone appealed any resulting decision on the basis of the first hearing being immediately continued, the judge would see that no discussion took place and that any interested parties were notified of the next meeting - so no harm done.

However, if there is a regular quorum present but no super majority quorum (usually needed for public hearings held under 40A) the chair could open the hearing ,knowing there is no super majority quorum, and discuss it as usual at that first meeting and then continue to the next meeting.  Any missing member could sign a Mullins form stating that they either watched the video or read the minutes of the first meeting in order to vote

Katrina O'Leary, AICP
Middleton Town Planner
195 North Main Street     Middleton, MA   01949     PH: (978)777-8917
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Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2023 3:50 PM
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Subject: [Massplanners] Opening and Continuing Public Hearings with no quorum

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Hello planners,

It's perfect we have another question of the day regarding public hearings!

I somehow recall that during COVID times there may have been an opportunity for the chair to open and continue a public hearing or some arrangement when there wasn't a quorum to open a hearing before remote meetings became a thing. Was I imagining something like that where the Board Chair without a quorum could open and continue a public hearing if there was no quorum?

As a refresher, what is the most appropriate process in opening a public hearing and/or continuing etc. when you do not have a quorum to act on a permit? If a Board is unable to open a hearing due to lack of quorum to act on a permit or even lack of quorum to open a hearing, does the board have to readvertise for a future date? What are towns and cities doing now?

Thanks in advance for sharing your public hearing opening and continuation processes!

Ken

Kenneth Comia, AICP
Deputy Director, Land Use and Environment Department

Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
60 Congress Street - Floor 1
Springfield, MA 01104
p: 413-285-1175 | e: kcomia at pvpc.org<mailto:kcomia at pvpc.org>
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