Governor Maura Healey signed An Act Extending Certain COVID-19 Measures Adopted During the State of Emergency. This legislation will permit state and local public bodies to conduct public meetings in a hybrid or remote format while also allowing participants at town meetings to participate remotely.

While the extension of pandemic-era rules will now expire in June 2027, the Healey Administration also filed the Municipal Empowerment Act, which would make permanent the ability to conduct public virtual meetings. Several organizations that partner with Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative are supportive of the Municipal Empowerment Act and the provision to extend virtual meeting capabilities would support a broad range of people, including older adults, to be civically engaged and informed.

According to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), there are more than 10,000 local boards and commissions across the Commonwealth.

In addition to the Open Meeting Law provisions in the Municipal Empowerment Act, the several organizations representing cities and towns (regional planning agencies and Mass Municipal Association) also strongly support bills filed by Rep. Danielle Gregoire and Sen. Jacob Oliveira, H. 3342 and S. 2197, respectively, entitled An Act to modernize municipal meetings, town meetings, and local elections. All of these proposals would codify the public meeting provisions that have been overwhelmingly successful over the past five years.