Gov. Maura Healey moved Friday March 28 to extend COVID-era remote and hybrid meeting allowances for public bodies until mid-2027, avoiding their potential expiration. Those policies were set to expire March 31, but the new law pushes that sunset date until June 30, 2027.
The governor’s office said Healey on Friday signed the bill (H 62) that lawmakers sent her last week to keep in place language granting public bodies flexibility to hold meetings virtually or in hybrid formats, as well as measures lowering the number of people necessary for a quorum at Town Meeting and allowing representative Town Meetings to be held with remote participation.
Government boards in Massachusetts were initially granted the ability to meet without a physical quorum of members present and without affording public access to the physical meeting locations under an order Gov. Charlie Baker announced on March 12, 2020 to meet remotely, after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Other bills filed such as H3299, H3342, and S2197 to make mandate or make remote meetings optional permanently were not enacted. The earlier policy date was simply extended to 2 years. Senator Jamie Eldridge cosponsored S2197 which also would have allowed for remote town meetings. Representative Linsky cosponsored H3299.
