During the 11\/8\/2023 Planning Board meeting multiple members spoke against allowing any public comment at meetings. State law requires the public to be allowed to speak only at a Public Hearing. The board has historically not allowed any comment during meetings with no public hearings. The one recent exception was the 9\/13\/2023 meeting where the Chair reluctantly allowed members of the public to speak at a Capital Improvement Workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the 11\/8 meeting a member of the public asked to speak. He was met with resistance from the chairman and two other members of the board. Chairman Art Rugg responded that he does not want to ‘open a flood gate’ of public comment. Board member Tony DeFrancesco responded ‘public comment did not go well’ another member, Jake Butler, advocated to ‘stay away from public comment’ at future workshops. Chairman Rugg did not want to ‘open Pandoras box’ or ‘go down the rat hole’ and ‘regretted’ allowing the public to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n