[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the
Town of Stillwater as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
[Adopted 2-19-2009 by L.L. No. 4-2009]
A.
It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that the
public business be performed in an open and public manner and that
the citizenry be fully aware of and able to observe the performance
of public officials and the discussions and decisions that go into
the making of public policy. An informed public is essential to an
accountable government.
B.
The Town Board is the legislative body of the Town of Stillwater.
Clearly, the residents of Stillwater should have access to the meetings
of the Board wherein the public's business is being conducted. At
the same time, however, the public's attendance must be decorous and
respectful, most especially when the Board invites public comment.
The opportunity to observe the meetings is not a license to disrupt
the meeting.
C.
The purpose of these rules is to prescribe a regular order of business
and rules of conduct for those members of the public who attend the
meetings of the Town Board.
[Amended 3-3-2022 by L.L. No. 1-2022]
The Town Board of the Town of Stillwater (the "Town") shall hold regular meetings on dates specified by the Town Board, in the Boardroom at Stillwater Town Hall, unless the Town Board determines otherwise. The Town Clerk shall be responsible to publish notice of regular meetings in accordance with § 104 of the Public Officers Law. The schedule for the Town Board's regular meetings will be incorporated into the Board's organizational resolution at its annual organizational meeting as set forth in § 23-4 of this chapter. The schedule of meetings may be subject to change as reasonably requested or needed by the Town Board.
A.
Agenda meeting. The first Thursday of the month shall be the agenda
meeting. The purpose of the agenda meeting is to formulate the agenda
for the next business meeting. The Supervisor, Board members and department
heads may report on activities or issues affecting the Town, and they
may request that one or more items be placed on the agenda for the
next or a future business meeting. An item shall be placed on the
agenda unless a majority of the Town Board disagrees. A preliminary
agenda shall be prepared and distributed to the members by the Town
Clerk after the agenda meeting. The Supervisor shall distribute the
final agenda to the members prior to the business meeting.
B.
Business meeting. The third Thursday of the month shall be the business
meeting. The purpose of the business meeting is to take formal action
on any proposed resolutions, local laws, ordinances or other matters
requiring Board approval. Public comment at the business meeting shall
be limited to comment on the matters presented at the business meeting.
Special meetings of the Town Board are those Town Board meetings
other than regular meetings. A special meeting may be called by the
Supervisor or at the request of any three members of the Board. At
such special meeting, no business other than that for which the Board
has called the special meeting shall be transacted. The Town Clerk
shall publish notice of special meetings in accordance with § 104
of the New York State Public Officers Law.
An organizational meeting shall be held in early January of each year. This is a special meeting and shall be called and noticed in accordance with § 23-3 herein and § 104 of the Public Officers Law. At the annual organizational meeting, the Town Board shall:
A.
Qualify Town officers and administer the oaths of office;
B.
Insure that the specified Town officers file the required undertaking
or, in the alternative, procure a blanket undertaking covering all
Town officers and employees;
C.
Fill all appointive positions and establish deputy and other discretionary
positions;
D.
Review and distribute the Town Code of Ethics to all Town officers
and employees;
E.
Fix the salaries and benefits for all positions within the Town;
F.
Designate the official newspaper of the Town for purposes of publishing
official notices; and
G.
Take any and all other actions the Town Board deems necessary.
A quorum shall be required to conduct business. The majority
of the Town Board shall constitute a quorum.
Executive sessions shall be held in accordance with § 105
of the Public Officers Law. All executive sessions shall be commenced
in a public meeting with a motion identifying the general subject
or subjects to be considered. Attendance shall be limited to any member
of the Town Board and any other persons authorized to attend that
executive session by the Town Board.
A.
The Supervisor shall preside as Chairman at all meetings of the Town
Board. In the Supervisor's absence or inability to serve, the Deputy
Supervisor or another Town Board member designated by the Supervisor
or Town Board shall act as presiding officer and shall so serve until
the return of the Supervisor.
B.
The presiding officer shall preserve order and decorum and shall
decide all questions of order.
A.
Minutes of all meetings shall be taken by the Town Clerk. Minutes
need not be a verbatim account of what is said, but rather the minutes
shall consist of a written record or summary of all motions, proposals,
resolutions and any other matter formally voted upon and the vote
thereon.
B.
Minutes shall be taken at executive session of any action that is
taken by formal vote, which shall consist of a record or summary of
the final determination of such action and the date and vote thereon;
provided, however, that such summary need not include any matter that
is not required to be made public by the New York Freedom of Information
Law.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See Public Officers Law § 84 et seq.
C.
Minutes shall also include the following:
(1)
Name of the Town Board;
(2)
Date, place and time of the meeting;
(3)
Notation of presence or absence of Town Board members and time of
arrival or departure if different from time of call to order or adjournment;
(4)
Name and title of other Town officials and employees present and
approximate number of attendees;
(5)
Record of communications presented to the Town Board;
(6)
Record of reports made by Town Board or other Town personnel;
(7)
Record of audited claims;
(8)
Record of resolutions, local laws, ordinances or other enactments;
(9)
Time of adjournment; and
(10)
Signature of Town Clerk or person who took the minutes if not the
Town Clerk.
D.
Minutes shall be transcribed and distributed, if available, at least
three days before the next regular meeting. Minutes shall be approved
at the next Town Board meeting after they have become available. Amendments,
changes or additions to the minutes shall require Town Board approval.
A.
Public attendance.
(1)
The public shall be permitted to attend and observe any regular or
special meeting of the Town Board.
(2)
Placards, banners or other signs shall not be permitted in the meeting
rooms. Distribution of flyers or other materials shall not be permitted
without the express permission of the presiding officer.
B.
Public comment at agenda meetings.
(1)
Persons desiring to speak at the agenda meeting must sign in upon
entering the room, indicating their request to address the Board.
Speakers shall be recognized in the order that they signed in, and
the presiding officer may, at his or her discretion, limit the time
afforded to a speaker.
(2)
The presiding officer may, in his or her discretion, recognize additional
speakers upon request, after taking into consideration the number
of registered speakers and the total time for public comment.
D.
Rules of conduct.
(1)
Comment and questions may be submitted orally or in writing before
or at the Town Board meeting. Questions submitted or comments made
may be answered either at the meeting or by oral or written response
to the submitter by the appropriate Town official after the meeting.
(2)
Attendees shall remain seated until recognized by the presiding officer
and shall not interrupt the procedures of the Board or the conduct
of the meeting. Each speaker shall state his or her name, address,
organization, if any, and the subject he or she will be addressing.
(3)
Speakers may not address the Board until recognized by the presiding
officer. Comments by speakers must be addressed to the Town Board
as a body.
(4)
Speakers shall observe the commonly accepted rules of courtesy, decorum,
dignity and good taste. Speakers may not make personal comments about
public officials, Town residents or others.
(5)
A speaker may disagree with or support prior speakers in comments
directed to the Town Board, but direct exchanges between speakers
and other attendees of the meeting is prohibited.
E.
A person who disregards the directives of the presiding officer in
enforcing these rules, disturbs the peace at a meeting, makes impertinent
or slanderous remarks or generally conducts himself in a boisterous
or inappropriate manner while addressing the Town Board shall forfeit
any balance of time remaining for his comments and may be ejected
from the meeting pursuant to § 240.20 of the New York State
Penal Law.
F.
Representatives of the media in attendance at a Town Board meeting
shall adhere to all procedures as set forth herein. No questions from
the media shall be entertained until after the meeting has been adjourned.
All members of the public, public officials and representatives
of the media are allowed to audiotape or videotape public meetings.
The recording shall be done in a manner that does not interfere with
the meeting. Any setup of recording or camera equipment must be done
in advance of the meeting so as to not be unduly disruptive, unless
otherwise authorized by the presiding officer. Recording is not allowed
during executive sessions.
Meetings shall be adjourned by motion.
The foregoing procedures may be amended from time to time by
a majority vote of the Town Board.
[Added 9-15-2022 by L.L. No. 7-2022]
A.
All public bodies of the Town of Stillwater are authorized to use
videoconferencing technology to conduct their meetings in accordance
with the provisions of § 103-a of the NY Public Officers
Law, subject to the following conditions:
(1)
A minimum number of members of the public body sufficient to fulfill
the public body's quorum requirement must be present in the same
physical location where the public can attend.
(2)
All members of the public body shall be physically present at any
meeting of the public body unless a member is unable to be physically
present due to extraordinary circumstances, including, but not limited
to:
(a)
Disability;
(b)
Illness;
(c)
Quarantine order;
(d)
The death of an immediate family member where such term is defined
to include a spouse, parent, sibling, child, domestic partner, or
individual for whom the member is the designated guardian;
(e)
Caregiving responsibilities for an immediate family member,
or;
(f)
Any other significant or unexpected factor that may preclude
physical attendance.
(3)
A member who wishes to participate in a meeting by videoconference
must provide advance notice and justification for their absence to
the extent possible to the appointed leadership of the public body.
For purposes of the Town Board, such notice shall be provided to the
Supervisor. In the case of the Planning Board or the Zoning Board
of Appeals, notice shall be provided to the Chair of said board.
(4)
The leadership of a public body may require any member requesting
to participate in a meeting by teleconference to provide documentation,
to the extent possible, supporting such request and may publicly confirm
that such documentation was received without publicly stating the
contents of such documentation.
(5)
Except in the case of executive sessions, the public body shall ensure
that members who are participating remotely can be heard, seen, and
identified at all times when the meeting is being conducted.
(6)
The minutes of meetings involving videoconferencing shall state which
members, if any, participated by videoconference, and shall be available
to the public.
(7)
If videoconferencing is being used to conduct a meeting, the public
notice for the meeting shall inform the public that videoconferencing
will be used, where the public can view and/or participate in such
meeting, where required documents and records will be posted or available
and identify the physical location for the meeting where the public
can attend.
(8)
If videoconferencing is used to conduct a meeting, the public body
shall provide the opportunity for members of the public to view such
meeting via video, and to participate in proceedings via videoconference
in real time where public comment or participation is authorized and
shall ensure that videoconferencing authorizes the same public participation
as in-person participation.
(9)
Any and all videoconferencing technology used for public meetings
shall be made accessible to members of the body and the public with
disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act
of 1990, as amended.
(10)
Nothing herein shall prohibit the Town Board or any other board
or body of the Town of Stillwater from holding meetings entirely by
videoconference, with no in-person requirement, during a state of
emergency declared by the Governor of New York pursuant to Executive
Law § 28 or by the Saratoga County Executive or by the Supervisor
if such public body determines that the circumstances necessitating
the emergency declaration would affect or impair the ability of the
public body to hold an in-person meeting.
(11)
The written procedures set forth in this chapter governing member
attendance by videoconference at meetings of public bodies, together
with any supplemental, but not contrary, written procedures that public
bodies may adopt on the subject of videoconferencing, shall be conspicuously
posted on the Town's website.
(12)
Policy required.
(a)
Before Boards may conduct meetings by videoconference in accordance
with § 103-a of the Open Meetings Law, or this section,
public bodies must "establish written procedures governing member
and public attendance consistent with this section, and such written
procedures shall be conspicuously posted on the public website of
the public body" [NY Public Officers Law § 103-a Subdivision
2(b).] This section authorizes all public bodies of the Town of Stillwater
to conduct meetings by videoconference in accordance with state and
local law, and sets forth written procedures therefor, which will
be posted on the Town's website along with its adoption in the
Town Code as published on eCode 360®.
B.
When effective. This section shall take effect upon filing with the
Secretary of State.
C.
Validity. The invalidity of any word, section, clause, paragraph,
sentence, part or provision of this section shall not affect the validity
of any other part of this section which can be given effect without
such invalid part or parts.
D.
Repealer. All local laws in conflict with provisions of this section
are hereby superseded.
