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Sudbury residents are making their voices heard by voting in this national election season. At the same time, we have a potpourri of local issues percolating, and the budget season that precedes composing the Town Meeting Warrant is rolling in. Civic engagement is highly valued in Sudbury, so short of serving on a committee, what can a resident do? How can one’s voice be heard?
Ins and Outs of Public Comment
Massachusetts’ Open Meeting Law (OML) aims to promote openness and transparency in government. It requires that committee meetings be open to the public. Yet, OML states that no individual may address a public body without permission of the chair. OML guidance also states:
Although public participation is entirely within the chair’s discretion, the Attorney General encourages public bodies to allow as much public participation as time permits.
In Sudbury, most committees have taken this to heart. Some chairs provide public comment opportunities at specific points in their agendas; some offer public comment opportunities after each agenda item; some take questions and comment if an attendee raises their hand; a few do not take comment.
Here are the seventeen committees which specifically list Public Comment, Citizen Comment, or Open Forum in their agendas:
- Board of Health
- Commission on Disability
- Diversity Equity and Inclusion Commission
- Finance Committee
- Goodnow Library Trustees
- Lincoln-Sudbury Regional HS Committee
- Park and Recreation Committee
- Planning Board – by advance request
- Rail Trails Advisory Committee
- Select Board
- Select Board Policies & Procedures Review
- Sewataro Assessments & Recommendations
- Sudbury 250 Committee
- Sudbury Housing Authority
- Sudbury Housing Trust
- SPS School Committee
- Transportation Committee
Fifteen other committees do not specifically list public comment opportunities on their agendas, however it is important to note that many of these committees do, in fact, offer public comment opportunities.
Community members may want to contact a committee to ask about public comment opportunities or for other reasons. But how?
Seek and Find
The town website home page displays a set of links across its top. Among them are Calendars, Committees, and Departments. Those are your keys to connection.
You can visit any Department page in that roster and find all you need to contact town staff. Connecting with committees is more varied.
All committee pages offer an email address and eighteen of the thirty-two active committees list a phone number. Committees which are associated with a department may have staff to take calls during working hours. Others have a voice messaging system. Committee members’ phone numbers are not posted. It’s an option to arrange a personal discussion with the chair or a member using the committee’s email or phone.
The “Calendars” list leads with the Town Calendar where anyone may see when committees meet and when other town events are scheduled. The listings link to information about the meeting or event.
Speaking Up
If an individual wants to express their views directly and perhaps publicly to a committee there are various options for that: hearings, forums, listening sessions, surveys, and public comment.
To find out when a topic will be discussed, check the committee’s meeting agenda. There are two good ways to find an agenda. Use the “Calendars” link on the town home page to find the meeting and open the meeting page where the agenda link will be available. Or visit the committee’s webpage, select the “Meetings” page link, and choose the agenda for the meeting of interest.
Examples of committees that hold hearings for their rulings, where the public may speak on a specific item, are Community Preservation Committee, Conservation Commission, Planning Board, Historic Districts Commission, Select Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals. Some have hearings regularly, others only infrequently.
Some committees schedule a forum or listening session to inform the public and to gather input to use in their work. They publicize these beyond standard meeting postings by putting an article on their own page or on the town website homepage, and perhaps beyond. The Select Board holds a forum annually. The Zoning Board of Appeals held a forum on October 22.
Some committees seek input through surveys. Currently there is an article on the town webpage explaining how to sign up for FlashVote. A FlashVote is a very short survey that runs for a few days on a specific topic. Since 2018 the town has conducted 10 FlashVotes. Links to results are in the article. Occasionally a committee (e.g., Transportation; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Council on Aging) will reach out to its constituency through more traditional surveys.
You Can Subscribe
To consistently capture information about a committee’s meetings and other work visit their page and follow the “Subscribe to Content Updates” link found at the upper right.
Fair warning: Once you discover the empowerment of expressing your point of view to friends and neighbors on these committees and boards, you may find that you want to join them in public service.
