Boston City Council hears testimony on permanent hybrid access for boards and commissions

BOSTON — March 30, 2023 — Boston City Council holds hearing on permanent remote access to public meetings. The Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Councillor Ricardo Arroyo and featuring testimony from sponsors Liz Breadon and Ruthzee Louijeune, convened March 30 to consider Docket 0452, which would permanently embed hybrid public access into the City of Boston Code for roughly 60 boards and commissions subject to the open meeting law. The hearing came one day after Gov. Maura Healey signed a supplemental budget extending pandemic-era remote meeting rules through March 2025. Brianna Millar, Chief of Community Engagement, and Andrea Patton, Chief of Staff for the Mayor's Commission for Persons with Disabilities, backed the measure while flagging the staffing and equipment demands of hybrid meetings, describing hybrid as "the gold standard." Advocates from the ACLU of Massachusetts, Common Cause Massachusetts, the Disability Law Center, and the Boston Center for Independent Living all urged the council to pass the ordinance without waiting for state legislative action. No vote was taken; a working session on the ordinance language was indicated as the next step.