Advocate Asks Southampton Town Board To Ensure Access To Meetings, Facilities

How are town officials ensuring that everyone can participate in government? Are they working to remove barriers and to promote hybrid methods of civic engagement?

Glenn Hall, chairman of East Hampton Town’s Disabilities Advisory Committee and the East End Disabilities Advisory Group, met with the Southampton Town Board last week to discuss measures for assuring accessibility to all community members.

Created in 1994, the East End Disabilities Group was designed to be a voice for people with disabilities and remove barriers that deny people with disabilities equal access, Hall explained, adding, “We’ve been doing this a long time.”

His visit, via Zoom teleconference, to the board’s March 10 work session had a dual focus. Hall wanted to know how well the town was doing with its compliance with the American With Disabilities Act, and he wanted to garner support for amending the state’s Open Meetings Law to allow the continued use of teleconference technology.

When the pandemic shut down public meetings in 2020, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo lifted provisions within the Open Meetings Law that required public officials to do the public’s business in person. Emergency measures were lifted last summer but then reissued when pandemic cases climbed again. The most recent order was due to expire this week but is expected to be renewed again.

The Open Meetings Law says you can’t participate in government unless you’re in the room, Hall noted; COVID and Zoom showed that you can. He asked the Town Board for support in lobbying for the continuation of hybrid meetings.

The law as written prevents officials from voting if they’re not present in person. Councilman Rick Martel noted that, due to an injury he suffered that required a hospital stay, if it hadn’t been for the availability of remote meetings, “I wouldn’t have been able to vote for three months.”

“It’s a balancing act,” Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who has penned the proposed revisions to the Open Meetings Law, offered this week. “We don’t want public bodies going virtual every time there is a tough issue or just because it’s easier. On the other hand, folks with a disability or even a temporary injury, like Rick, make a good case for permitting some virtual participation.”

Permitting virtual participation would also expand the overall pool of potential candidates for public bodies, Thiele pointed out. “In our area, where you have lots of folks with multiple residences but vote here — more would agree to serve if they could participate remotely when they are away,” he said. “I could see increased remote participation being permitted, provided there is a quorum attending in person. It’s still an open discussion.”

Town Attorney James Burke said that “without question” officials will be including a Zoom option as part of public meetings. “We’ve all learned the value of Zoom and other methods of communicating,” he said.

“Southampton is a very large town with an awful lot of buildings, parks, sidewalks, beaches, curb cuts, programs, departments, employees and codes,” Hall pointed out, moving to his second topic. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act, called “civil rights for people with disabilities” by the advocate, requires they are all accessible.

Councilwoman Cynthia McNamara is liaison to the town’s Disability Advisory Committee. She said the group was in a rebuilding phase after several members died and is still accepting members.

Assistant Town Attorney Sean Cambridge, the town’s compliance officer, recently surveyed town buildings and developed a list of barriers that need addressing. He and Hall will work together.