2021-12-16 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Dealing with a Lost Connection When a remote meeting is interrupted by a dropped connection to one of its required components—for example, the whole meeting goes down due to a problem with the meeting platform or the host's connection to it, the public location is cut off, the public livestream or testimony connection listed in the notice goes down,or the board cannot keep a quorum of members visible—the meeting cannot continue even if a quorum of board members remain connected to one another. (Note that an individual member of the public's inability to stay connected does not require recessing the meeting, unless the problem is actually with the public meeting link itself.) The meeting must be recessed for up to 30 minutes to restore the connection,and it can reconvene once the connection is restored. If the full audiovisual connection cannot be restored but the board can manage at least an audio connection for all the required components of the remote meeting, the board can proceed with the meeting that way, with each speaker required to state his or her name and visual aids required to be made available to all participants (perhaps by posting on the board's website). The board should advise the public how to join a reconvened meeting,preferably through its original notice, such as to keep trying the original link,to use a backup link given in the notice, or to look at the board's website for a new link. If the board is unable to restore even an audio connection after30 minutes,the meeting must terminate unless the board has reasonably informed the public how a disconnected meeting would be continued ata later date and time (such as in the notice). With proper notice of continuation,the meeting can be considered in recess and continued atthe specified date and time, rather than terminated. If the meeting must be terminated, the only way to finish the intended agenda is to notice a new meeting at least six days in advance. Executive Meeting Requirements Executive meetings(also called executive sessions)during remote meetings have slightly different requirements than those applicable to the public meetings. Members are not required to be visible during an executive session,just audible. However, all participants— board members, staff running the meeting,the board's attorney, anyone properly present during the executive session — must confirm to the chair that no unauthorized person is with them or linked into the meeting, and the meeting host must also confirm that no unauthorized person is participating if the meeting platform allows the host to check that. Quick Review: Sunshine Law Requirements for Remote Meetings (revised 10/2021) Page 3