PITTSBORO — Meeting in a room with no more than 10 people Monday night, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners voted on a new policy governing electronic meetings and established parameters for future meetings that might be affected by a declared state of emergency.
The new procedure will allow for public commissioner meetings using electronic means only when the county, state or federal government declare a “state of emergency or a disaster exists in an area including Chatham County.”
What this will actually look like, particularly as it relates to legislative public hearings like zoning decisions, is still up in the air. The board unanimously voted to approve the changes, which enshrined remote meetings into county rules. But county staff was asked to find a way to create a legislative public hearing process that would allow for public input in real time while still maintaining social distancing and mass gathering restrictions.
The discussion was amplified by a public comment from Nick Robinson, a Pittsboro-based attorney representing Williams Corner, a development in northeast Chatham with two zoning changes before the board. The changes were originally to be discussed in a public hearing in March, which was delayed. Robinson said the Williams Corner developers were amenable to that delay, but expressed concern that it was being pushed off more. He requested the board and the county government “formulate and adopt similar and reasonable conditions” to other local governments who have produced procedures to allow public hearings to still go on despite restrictions.
Commissioners Diana Hales and Mike Dasher both said they desired to see real-time comments.
“I think being able to provide input in real time would be great,” Dasher said. “I envision a Zoom-style where the clerk can pull folks up as they’ve signed up and people can chime in. I understand there’s a lot more technically to that, but I think that would be great.”
One suggestion thrown out was having individuals making public comment come into the meeting room one-by-one, or 10 at a time, until all comments are made. The final decision has not yet been made, but the commissioners’ consensus was that they were amenable to such a procedure, if it could be formalized.
County Manager Dan LaMontagne said county staff wanted to test whatever electronic methodology was chosen at the May meeting.
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.