Town Looks to Enhance Communication Between Citizens and Boards

Although it’s the 21st century, it can still be very challenging to connect with some elected or appointed members of Franklin’s boards and commissions. The Town Council posts readily accessible emails and even phone numbers for its members but other deliberative bodies are generally less easy to connect with.

In some cases, this “hard to get” stance has been partly a reflection of concerns about adhering to state open meeting laws – conversations about a matter before a board or commission not conducted in public could be a violation. A former chair of the Conservation Commission went so far as to assert that ConComm members could not talk to residents ever, period.

But that extreme view may be over the top, said Town Administrator Jamie Hellen. He explained that if communication occurs outside of the public hearing, it does jeopardize public hearing law and could be an Open Meeting Law violation. “There should be ample posted meetings to publicly address citizen concerns; not side conversations,” he noted. Thus, for many reasons, some board or commission members may decline to give their personal information because the discourse or discussion should be occurring at public meetings. “This is true for any agenda item, but particularly for public hearings,” he said. And, “if they close a hearing, no one on the committee is obligated to speak to anyone, especially outside of the public hearing,” he said.

Furthermore, he added, there is no legal requirement for individuals to publish their personal emails or phone numbers.

Having said that, though, Hellen said there is a need to make officials more accessible. “I have spoken to our IT director about this issue; it has been my goal to get elected officials onto public emails when we converted to Google [for email] a few years ago,” Hellen explained.

He said the biggest motivation is to protect their personal information from public records law and to ensure separation of records. “It is in everyone's interest and I am working with the IT director to expand this public access for elected boards after the upcoming November election.

“In the past, commission and board members had a choice, but after November they will not have a choice even if they do not want it or actually use it,” said Hellen. “It's time to get everyone on board, especially as the town only has five elected boards and I have heard many complaints about people being hard to reach,” he said.

After the transition for elected boards is implemented, the staff will be looking at a system for appointed boards as well, he said.