​Emergency's End Complicates Brookline's Ongoing Town Meeting

The June 15 end date for the COVID-19 state of emergency has generated a municipal governance time crunch for Brookline, where the Annual Town Meeting could spill into the post-emergency era.

The representative town meeting launched via Zoom on May 19, and Town Clerk Ben Kaufman said in testimony this week to the Senate Ways and Means Committee that a "large number of warrant articles" and the current pace make it "likely that the Annual Town Meeting will not be completed before June 15."

When the emergency ends, the statutory authority for towns to hold their representative town meetings remotely will also expire. Kaufman, Sen. Cynthia Creem and Rep. Tommy Vitolo asked the committee to advance legislation that would continue to allow representative town meetings to be held virtually.

"I don't blame Governor Baker for his inability to announce the June 15 termination of the State of Emergency several months ago; likewise, I don't blame Brookline for scheduling its Town Meeting so close to the State of Emergency termination date it had no ability to predict months earlier," Vitolo wrote. "If Brookline's town meeting can work expeditiously, it won't need an extension. However, virtual town meetings tend to take more time, and the lack of opportunistic or happenstance in-person conversations between town meeting members over the past several months requires that questions, concerns, and confusion are resolved within the virtual town meeting, adding to the time required."

A Vitolo bill and similar legislation from Sen. Paul Feeney (H 2210/S 1334) would allow towns that put out their warrants scheduling representative town meetings before June 15 to continue remotely.

Those bills are scheduled for an 11 a.m. Tuesday virtual hearing before the Municipalities and Regional Government Committee. People interested in testifying have until 5 p.m. Friday to sign up online, and can email written comments to municipalitiescommitteema@gmail.com.