Meeting transcript
BOS Special Meeting
May 29, 2020 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Jeff Streink. Hey, Jeff.
Alright. So we're good to go. Jeff, is that you on the iPhone? Yeah. I'm just trying to get my video going. Okay.
Okay. I renamed you Jeff Murray. I started record. So, Jeff, you could call the meeting to order if you wanted it, and we could have at it.
Sure. Let's call the meeting to order, and, I'm going to pass it to Eric to read the motion and to also read the notice that will be mailed related to this issue. Okay. So yep. Can you hear me? Yep. Go ahead. All you. Okay.
So this will be a, special town meeting Tuesday, 06/30/2020 at 7PM. The call in information is listed on the top of the town meeting, you know, portion. The electors and citizens qualified to vote in town meeting in the town of Andover are hereby notified that a special meeting for the town of Andover will be virtually held on Tuesday, 06/30/2020 at 7PM for the following purposes. To choose a moderator for said meeting, to elect a member to fill the vacancy on the Region eight Board of Education term ending 06/30/2023 and adjourn. Copies of the candidate synopsis of qualifications are available on the town website at andoverct.org dated at Andover, Connecticut this blank day of blank, which would be today's date. So essentially all this does is sets a town meeting date. We've talked it over with the registrar's office and Carol about how we can fairly and legally run a public meeting via Zoom. It is not perfect. One of the big downsides is that normally these votes are done with a paper ballot, which preserves the anonymity of the people that are voting. There's no practical way we can do that with the Zoom meeting. Everything else we have worked out. So people will have to be essentially on the record. The town hall meeting will be recorded and that recording will be saved. Therefore, we'll have a positive verification of whatever vote occurred if anybody calls that into question. So that's the plan. We are advertising right now. We've sent letters to the chairs of the RTC and DTC. And basically what we're asking anybody who's interested in it to submit a letter to the town clerk saying they're interested, as well as a synopsis of why they want it and what their qualifications
are for that. That will all be on the town website at least seven days prior to the meeting, and then we'll have the meeting. So that's about as fair as we can do it. And it appears to we've gone back and forth with myself and Carol and the town's attorney, making sure that we are doing this legally and properly. So we're pretty convinced that we have this correct as far as satisfying all the governor's executive orders regarding, meetings and how town business is is conducted. Conducted. Okay.
A question Paula? Yeah. I've got a quick question. So the day of, Eric, so people are going to be verified in the waiting room and so
can you just explain that again? So what will happen is we will have a waiting room set up and one by one, Carol and the registrar will verify the identity of the people in the waiting room and only let into the meeting those are that are qualified electorates of the town of Andover. And that way, you know, we have no issues with everybody that's physically in the meeting will be legal to vote.
Are they gonna be, I'm just thinking technology wise, so they're gonna be the host and co host or how are they, you know what I mean, for Zoom purposes?
So what we're gonna end up doing in practical terms is put, you know, at least two people in the room and possibly a third with Amanda so that they're all there and more than likely Amanda will run the meeting. We're talking about doing a trial run ahead of time to make sure we know exactly how we're doing it and verifying and letting them into the room. It's difficult because we have kind of two lists. There's the first list of registered voters in the town of Andover and then there's also the list of qualified property owners. So it's a little annoying in that there's two slightly separate lists that both have to be cross checked for this. But, you know, we've talked it through and I think we have we can work that out ourselves as to how to actually do it. Right. And it's just gonna take some time to try and, you know, get I'm envisioning it where they're
in the waiting room and then whoever's you know, Amanda's admitting them in and they have to give their name. Is that is that what you're thinking? Yep. That's exactly what we're thinking. Okay. And for people like you and I that are online,
you know, the the way you do it is you've got their voting rolls, and everybody just has to show their ID card. You know the problem comes in with people who just call in, that's the more difficult one to deal with. Is it perfect? No. You know, but short of of trying to you know, the only other way we could really envision doing it is use, like, election buddy or one of the third party secure election software, know, and then try to give everybody, get everybody to register at the meeting, have them all supply an email address and then immediately after that eat that, you know, them all a meeting invite to election buddy to vote. But I mean, I've
done that before for other things, but I think in this case, it's more trouble than it's worth. Yeah. Well, maybe if they're on a phone, if they feel comfortable doing this or know how to do it, they can take a picture of their license. We admit them in the meeting. They take a picture of their license. They text it to 1 of us, and then we that's them. I don't know. We'll have to be Honestly,
were just planning on using date of birth, make them verify their date of birth and compare that to the voter rolls hope that's sufficient. It's not perfect by any means but I think that sounds legitimate.
Yeah, that sounds good. Sounds reasonable. Yeah. One question I have though is what happens if we have somebody that doesn't have a computer or not really technical savvy and wants to participate in voting, we kind of address that or I mean whatever options if that happens?
I mean unfortunately we don't have a lot of great options. We have one spare laptop that we can set up in the community room So we could deal with one individual, but when we get more than that, it starts to get problematic. I don't have a good solution.
There any possibility there any possibility at all for some type of mail in or mailing a ballot to individuals that register through the the town clerk. Let's say we we register in advance and they have to be emailed back or they have to be mailed back?
Or can we just do it all possibly. Can we do absentee ballot if we have to? If somebody has to do a ballot and they don't they're not technically savvy and they just get the list of candidates seven days before. Well, we gotta then we gotta mail it out because if they're not online,
how are they gonna find out about it? You know what I mean? Yeah. That's true.
But if it goes in the River East, I mean, people, if somebody that's not tentatively said, it would read the River East because that's out now. True. If we post that, you know, saying, you know, if you cannot attend in person and you would still like to vote, please contact Carol Lee or or and then can I have some key ballot? Well, the one thing, Jeff, though the one the one thing, though, is that for every every town meeting that I've ever attended, if I've ever anyone's ever wanted to vote and leave,
our registrars never allowed them to do that. They had to stay to the very end of the meeting. Okay. I'm I'm just asking that question because it may make No. No. No. No. No. I agree. I'm I'm I'm thinking through the issues. Like, on I would sit there and go, could we could we have a meeting where people attended the meeting and then we knew they attended the meeting, we knew they were there, do we care if their vote is is private? The answer for me is no. So I I agree with Eric. Let's just do it. It won't be perfect. Let's get it done. I I was thinking maybe we could have people attend the meeting, hear the candidates, and then send them have them have them already have a ballot somehow either by email or something, and then they submit that back by email. But you're right, Jeff. People aren't gonna be technically savvy.
They're gonna have to do a voice vote. They gotta even do a in on the phone? Yep.
Mean, the the issue really is that Andover's is we are a town meeting form of government and the the our legal way to approve a candidate for the RAM board is a town meeting, not in an absentee ballot is essentially allowing some version of a referenda. So I'm not sure that's I would have to ask Dennis before I would even say that's even legal. Okay, I'm just asking a question. Yeah. No. It's it's a good question.
Yeah. I I I if I sit there and I think you could give a list of candidates and send out to everyone in town to sit there and vote, but then they wouldn't participate in the town meeting. They wouldn't they wouldn't necessarily need to listen to the candidate. They would just accept news from other people and then vote. Even though it probably get us much greater participation, it's not how the charter's written. So, Eric, in my mind, if you sat there and gone through this with Dennis and Carol and this is this is okay, then let's just go through it. The only difference between this and a in a in person meeting is that my vote is not private. Right. I have to go on the record. Correct. Okay.
That's fine. Can we can we do it with a chat? Can we do it can we can we be have people both be a chat with Amanda or something? If anybody's logged in with their number, we verified them. Can they just message you? What about telephones?
What about a telephone? That's true. That's true. I mean, that's but those are the people that I've mentally gone. Yeah. I mean, I have no access to this meeting. I'm on a phone right now. I don't have access to any of the I'd have to sit there and say, Amanda would have to go Jeff McGuire and
Or or they text Amanda. I don't know. They text their vote to Amanda.
The problem comes to how do we how do we secure that and how do we verify that? I mean, the advantage of doing it all publicly in a Zoom meeting is the meeting is recorded and everybody's vote. If anybody has any question about who Eric Anderson voted for, all they gotta do is look at the the meeting and you could go back through later and tally it up if it was close or, you know, somebody somebody questioned something.
I mean, the one the one I mean, I I I believe we need to do it this way. It's that the one question that I have is the governor's most recent executive orders, and is he releasing the opportunity to do in public meetings?
There has not been any date set for that. I mean, I don't know what date we could postpone this to. There's kind of a crazy, one of the governor's orders was a little bit crazy in that it specified a very narrow window for when public meetings could occur, like June 27 to June 30. And I think it's something that just slipped through the cracks because I looked at it and Dennis looked at it and it was like, did he really want to just make everybody do every public meeting in the state those three days? You know, but the date we picked does fall within the three days. So we know we're set even with that. You know, like I said, it is not a perfect solution. It's not exactly how we've done business in the past, but I think it's a workable solution. And according to our town's attorney, it's a legal solution.
Alright. Then let's just get this let's just get this on the calendar and do it. Because in my my mind guys, the only thing Jeff and and all of it I can think of is that we have an outdoor meeting and we we we distance ourselves and then people walk up to a table and vote. But you have so many issues with that. People in front of a registrar putting their license down, all the rest of the stuff. So let's just deal with this the way that Eric and attorney O'Brien and Carol set it up and just get it on the calendar. And if there's something that could be changed, Eric, what what is the our timeline?
We really don't even have a very big window for this. If we chose to change it by the governor's executive order changed in person meetings a week, two weeks. Eric is gonna sit there and say you don't have a window. Okay. Well So No. I Let's mean just it. Let's just it. You could probably reverse your decision
in the next week, but it would it would because frankly we've already sent out the meeting announcements basically So we could get We're gonna vote for our public notice I I I realized that but you know worst case scenario I go on the record and say oops I jumped the gun a little bit.
That's okay. Alright let's let's do we have any further discussion on this ball Jeff either one of us? Any of us? Nope. No. I'm good. Yeah. Let's just move forward with it.
Okay. So so Eric, is there a motion that you have available for us that we need to make? Or it's just a reading of the public announcement?
I would say it's just the reading of the public announcement. You know, I move that the public announcement as read carries.
Alright. Do do one of you wanna make that motion? All that, I move that the public announcement that was read carries. I will second that. Right. Further discussion? None. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.
Jeff? Aye. Aye. Okay. All right. So we're all in favor of three nothing. So we're gonna have a special meeting on June 30. Okay. Last
question. Is there anything else? You all go Go ahead. Is how do you want to sign the announcement? I kind of nixed Amanda's idea which was, you know, DocuSign because I think it looks kind of stupid and if you're mailing this out to the electorate, I think it looks a little more professional if there's an actual signature on it.
Is it still in the box in the town hall, in the
letter? Well, it's sitting on my desk at the moment, but it can certainly go straight into the box in the town hall.
If Eric, if you want to stop by, I'm home all day. If you're in the area and you just want to stop by, I can sign it too. That's fine.
Either way, Eric, if it if it's in my box, can get it to Paula. I can you know, I'll I'll sign it and then I'll put it back there for Monday. So you can leave it in the box. I'll get to Jeff. I'll call you. I'll get to you. I'll get you to sign it, and then I'll carry it to Paul and well, all three of us will sign it. I'll get it back to Eric for Monday. Okay. That works. Yep. Sounds good.
Alright. We're gonna adjourn. Is there anything else that we need to do, Eric? Nope. That's it. Okay. One of you want I'll make a motion to adjourn. I never make a to adjourn. Second. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Alright, Eric. Thank you very much. Thank you. Jeff Alright. Thank Paul, I'll I'll talk to you over the weekend.