VIDEOCONFERENCING AND THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC MEETINGS

Due to the pandemic, an increasing number of bills are coming up in state legislatures that would make videoconferencing an ongoing option for open government meeting requirements. Justin Silverman argues in a January 2022 article in the nonprofit magazine CommonWealth that pandemic-driven changes to open meeting laws should be permanent as a way to help journalists- and in turn, the community-hold government accountable. How do we balance issues of individual privacy, yet still make the discussions and decisions truly accessible to all groups (such as with closed-captioning and other Americans with Disabilities Act requirements)? "In Minnesota, state law already allowed government entities covered by the state's Open Meeting Law to conduct meetings by means of 'remote technology' even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic," he says.