Meeting Agendas Should Be Online - Editorial
Last week, an appeal was made during the select board’s public comment period for the Town of Mashpee to post its meeting agendas online. We were glad to hear it, as we’ve been wishing the same thing, and have been wondering as of late when—and why—that ceased to be the case.
At present, meeting agendas can almost always be found in person at town hall, posted to a bulletin board just inside the main entrance. This is in accordance with Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, which requires that meeting agendas for public bodies be publicly posted at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting.
Open Meeting Law is tricky, though. The commonwealth has a guide to help break it down, and the fine print of that guide is quite thorough in its rules. To summarize: agendas for public meetings need to be posted conspicuously and available for public viewing at all times; if agendas physically posted at town hall are not accessible to the public 24/7, then Open Meeting Law requires the town to “either post notices on the outside of the building or adopt the municipal website as the official method of notice posting.”
It seems that at one point meeting agendas were regularly posted online, but that is no longer the case. As such, the only consistent place for the public—including our reporters—to find meeting agendas is in person at the town clerk’s office.
Having our reporters visit town hall regularly is not a bad thing—in fact, we think it is a good thing to be recognizable in town—but going to town hall daily to seek out meeting agendas is not an entirely sustainable practice for our reporters, nor is it a good use of their time.
Only having meeting agendas available in person is also inconvenient for the public, as was stated by Mashpee Human Services Committee chairwoman Lynne Barbee last week during public comment. It is onerous at best and, taking disabled or homebound individuals into consideration, could simply not be possible for some.
We do not say all of this to chastise anyone at town hall; we know many departments (and town boards) are short-staffed. Rather, we say it because having access to meeting agendas ahead of time is crucial when it comes to being able to do our jobs.
Without meeting agendas, our reporters do not know what will be discussed at the various committee and board meetings held in Mashpee each week. If we do not know what will be discussed, neither our reporters nor editors are able to make the informed decisions necessary when it comes to spending reporters’ time wisely.
We wish we had the staff to cover every meeting each week, but we do not—and regardless of staffing, the news marches on. Meeting agendas are what help us determine what is news or could be of interest to our readers. When they are not consistently or readily accessible, though, trying to do our job and report town news can feel like grappling in the dark and just hoping we do not miss anything.
We hope the town will listen to the suggestions made last Monday. Online access to Mashpee’s meeting agendas and materials really would be a big win for both our news team and the town community at large.