Group urges Riverhead Town to make it easier for residents to comment at meetings

The Riverhead Town Board listened to public comments at their Aug. 20 meeting at Town Hall. Credit: Newsday / Jean-Paul Salamanca
A civic group is concerned that Riverhead officials are not doing enough to make their regular meetings open for residents or comment from home while Town Hall meetings remain closed to the public during the COVID-19 epidemic.
EPCAL Watch, a civic group that monitors changes at the Enterprise Park at Calverton, said in a letter dated April 7 the group felt the town board’s new measures regarding public comments at regular meetings are “unduly restrictive.”
Residents can watch the meetings online at the town's website or on a public access channel. At the April 7 meeting most of the board members were at Town Hall but two members participated remotely via teleconferencing.
The group was referring to a notice of change the town posted before its April 7 board and Community Development Agency meetings. Under those changes, the public could email or phone in their comments between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on the date of the meetings, but only regarding the resolutions being voted on that day. No public comments were taken on any other matter.
John McAuliff, a Riverhead resident and group member, said in an interview Wednesday the board should consider other alternatives to allow public participation in those meetings going forward, including video technology such as Skype and Zoom to allow people to comment from their homes, and allowing people to submit comments for any topic ahead of time.
“I’m sure public comment is considered a pain in the neck … but people do raise up community problems that don’t show up at any other place,” McAuliff said.
Specifically, the group is seeking to voice their continued objections to the town’s pending $40 million land deal at the EPCAL property with venture group Calverton Aviation and Technology, which wants to use the land to expand operations for co-partner Luminati Aerospace.
Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar in a statement Friday referred to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s emergency declaration order on open meetings laws, which states that public meetings may be conducted through teleconferencing and video conferencing without the public present.
“The meetings will be made public at a later date and a transcript will be provided. We intend to comply with the two provisions,” Aguiar said, adding the town allowed the public to email or call in with questions before the April 7 meeting and they received two letters from the public which were read into the record before voting.
Town Councilwoman Catherine Kent said she wants to let the public participate in future meetings. “It’s important that our public still be able to correspond with us and weigh in to topics we are discussing,” Kent said.
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said the board is discussing options, though she had concerns about people potentially hacking Zoom meetings.
“Public participation is very important to us being able to do our jobs better. I know we’re working on technology and trying to figure out how to do it, and hopefully the next meeting, we can get the public involved,” Giglio said.
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