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02/22/2021 11:00 PMYears of struggling to fill a gym for a 75-person quorum didn’t prepare officials for Madison’s first town meeting held virtually, and though residents were eventually able to make their voices heard in the unique new format, a handful of people were denied the ability to attend and vote after waiting over two hours.
Between 6 and about 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18, more than 100 residents flooded onto Zoom and were shuffled between various virtual “rooms” as they waited to have their IDs checked by the town registrars in order to vote. With only a handful of text pop-ups to apologize for the delay and ask those waiting to be prepared with their driver’s licenses, most people sat patiently for a chance to participate in the legislative process—for the first time, from their couches.
Unfortunately for some, at around 8:15 p.m., Town Services Coordinator Lauren Rhines informed the last waiting room that the meeting would go on without them, citing the significant time delay in getting everyone checked in.
The actual subject of the meeting was almost entirely non-controversial: Residents voted 78-1 to approve a one-year extension of the lease between the town and Our Lady of Mercy Preparatory Academy (OLMPA), allowing the private K-8 school to occupy the vacated Island Avenue property for another year.
But the delays, and confusion around a process meant to allow residents to attend town meetings remotely during the pandemic are sure to raise further questions, though town officials promised to improve the experience for future meetings.
First Selectman Peggy Lyons had made it clear weeks ago when scheduling the meeting that there would likely be difficulties and frustration as the town worked out the kinks in checking people in and voting virtually. In a recent email to The Source, she said protecting confidentiality in only having one person show ID and address at a time, along with many participant’s lack of familiarity with Zoom, contributed to the clunkiness of the process.
“Town staff also experienced some technology delays, and encountered some attendees who kept jumping on and off the meeting many times, adding to the delays,” she added
On the positive side, the town saw only its third quorum at a town meeting in the last 10 years, with significant interest and patience shown by those residents seeking to attend, which Lyons described as a positive step for participation in town government going forward.
“Rather than standing in line at Polson and sitting in a cold auditorium waiting for the meeting to start, the public was able to participate and vote from their living room couch or kitchen counter,” she wrote. “It was truly a unique experience for everyone involved and we are committed to improving the process if we need and/or aspire to hold further meetings under this virtual format.”
Joe MacDougald, a former Madison selectman and current UConn law professor who moderated the meeting, also expressed optimism about the new opportunities for engagement in town government going forward despite some of the pitfalls.
“The idea that we would go to a vote that really wasn’t all that controversial and see a big group, I was thrilled,” he said. “It’s hard to get people engaged, and maybe the online world will help.”
For those who were able to get into the meeting, the process seemed to run very smoothly, with MacDougald only fielding one question and a couple technical glitches quickly addressed as people voted virtually. The entire process took less than 15 minutes.
“Thank you all for your patience. We’ve all done the best we can. It’s the first time for this, and it’s just going to get better from here,” Town Clerk Nancy Martucci said at the end of the meeting.
Lyons apologized for the significant delays while adding that this was both Madison’s first virtual town meeting, and that Madison was one of only a handful of towns in the state to hold a town meeting virtually with voting. She said it was “encouraging” to see how patient people had remained through the process, echoing Martucci that things would become easier and simpler in the future.
Problems Getting On
Lyons said that in the future, the town will consider pre-checking and registering people “well in advance” of meetings and giving them a special code so they can bypass the potentially convoluted process of moving between virtual rooms and digging up their IDs to show town officials.
Though the town posted a set of instructions days ahead of the meeting, which informed residents of the procedure that would allow them to join and participate, more than a few seemed not to understand what was required of them or what part of the process they were currently in.
One woman spent about 10 minutes in a waiting room continuously attempting to show her ID to the camera in various ways and in different lighting or angles, though there were no town officials in that meeting. There was also nothing explicitly indicating that particular meeting was, in fact, a waiting room, and the woman seemed frustrated as her attempts went unacknowledged.
Other attendees also expressed confusion as to whether or not they were in the town meeting or a waiting room. As time wore on, people wandered on and off camera or engaged in other activities—phone calls, conversations with family members, or playing with children.
According to town officials, eight people who had joined a waiting room before the indicated meeting start time of 7 p.m. were denied entry. A further 16 tried to join after the town closed the waiting room at 7:24 p.m., according to the town, and they were also unable to participate.
Lyons wrote that the town was cognizant that people were growing “impatient,” and once it was clear they had reached a quorum of 75, the meeting was started.
“Town counsel advised that once we were confident that a quorum was checked in from the waiting area (75), to move them into the main meeting and start the meeting,” she wrote. “We did not want to have people leave prior to starting the meeting and then potentially lose quorum.”
Of the people who were informed they would not be able to participate after more than two hours in waiting rooms expressed disbelief and frustration, with one woman calling it “ridiculous,” and others asking whether it was legal to exclude people at this point.
Rhines told those waiting that “state statute” allows for people to be denied access to meetings in these specific circumstances, saying that the same thing could have happened at an in-person meeting.
Thomas Hennick, a spokesperson for the state’s Freedom of Information Commission, which deals with public access to government, told The Source “there would be no statute that I know of” dealing with this specific circumstance.
He called it “odd that potential voters were turned away and disenfranchised,” but referred to the Secretary of the State’s Office for further comment, as the town meeting technically falls under their jurisdiction as a legislative body. Gabe Rosenberg, general counsel at the Secretary of the State’s Office, said the issue was outside his agency’s purview.
Lyons noted that there was no chance for the meeting’s outcome to change even if all those who attempted to join had been able to vote with 78-1 vote margin in favor of approve the lease.
She also took time to thank Rhines, Martucci, and the town’s two new registrars, Jim Newton and Peter Thomas, for diligence and perseverance in making the town meeting happen, noting that Rhines somewhat single-handedly hosted the meeting, coordinating with half a dozen other officials simultaneously while juggling waiting rooms and other technology.
Originally, the town had scheduled two other items for this meeting, but one, a tax abatement ordinance change, was deemed not needing town meeting approval, according to Lyons.
The other, a new tax abatement for an affordable housing complex, will need to be approved at a future town meeting.