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07/21/2023 04:52 PMFollowing complaints from some potential applicants about the land use boards still holding virtual meetings, the Town Council is strongly encouraging all boards to resume in-person meetings if they haven’t done so already.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont issued an executive order to allow for virtual meetings of the various boards and commissions in Connecticut towns. Subsequently, the state legislature passed a state statute to allow towns to keep virtual meetings if they choose. In the years since the onset of the pandemic, most boards and commissions in Clinton have returned to in-person meetings as normal.
Despite that, at a meeting on July 5, it was brought to the Town Council’s attention that the three land use boards in town – the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC), the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC), and the Zoning Board of Appeals — are still meeting virtually.
While Town Council Chairman Chris Aniskovich acknowledged the town cannot force the boards to go back to in-person meetings, the council agreed to authorize Town Manager Karl Kilduff to write a letter strongly encouraging the boards to go back to in-person meetings.
Following the Town Council’s discussion, a PZC meeting on July 10 was held in person. Town Planner Abby Piersall said that she anticipates that the IWC and Zoning Board of Appeals will be moving to in-person or hybrid meetings over the next month.
The issue came to the council’s attention during the portion of the July 5 meeting dedicated to the appointment and reappointment requests for the boards and commissions. Typically, such requests are handled with little fanfare. However, at that meeting, Aniskovich told the council that Kimberley Lombard, who was on the meeting agenda to be reappointed to the IWC, had sent a follow-up email withdrawing her name for consideration for the reappointment. In her letter withdrawing her name, Lombard said she found it “impersonal and difficult” for her to engage in meetings held via Zoom and wished to find a different board that held in-person meetings.
Aniskovich revealed that the PZC had been meeting virtually as well and that he had had applicants before the board complain to him about attending via Zoom, which they found difficult.
The council members had serious reservations about land use boards meeting virtually.
“I’ve jumped on some of the Zoom meetings for PZC, and they’re a little hectic. Sometimes you just have people talking, and the chairman is talking, and I have had a couple applicants call me and ask why that was still happening because they felt uncomfortable,” Aniskovich said.
Land use board meetings – especially the PZC — can draw large crowds and have a substantial amount of public participation if they are dealing with a controversial application.
“I think we all know the impact it has to have to look someone right in the eyes when you’re talking about a request of theirs, whether it’s a budget or an appointment or anything else, and for an applicant to go through PZC or IWC and ….for them not to be able to make eye contact with the members and perhaps feel like they’re not being heard and seen is a real disservice to the people that are our applicants,” council member Carol Walter said.
Walter went on to argue that it is unfair to the applicants and attendees to meet only via Zoom just because it was easier for the board members themselves.
Other council members also expressed concerns about other pitfalls related to virtual meetings — people not paying attention, technical difficulties, and distractions.