Image: newsbreak.com

Since March, members of the public have not been permitted to attend meetings of the Chemung County Legislature pursuant to a New York State Executive Order that allows municipal governments to meet remotely without public attendance in order to slow the spread of COVID-19.

All meetings (aside from one due to technical problems) were live-streamed on Chemung County’s website, and recordings and Minutes were later published in accordance with the Executive Order and New York’s Open Meetings laws. The recordings and Minutes can be found here.

Although the Executive Order remains in effect, starting tonight members of the public may attend meetings of the Legislature subject to specific protocols set forth below:

The Agenda for tonight’s Budget Committee Meeting can be found here. Notably, County Executive Chris Moss is scheduled to make a presentation to the Legislature setting forth his proposal for a new sales tax distribution agreement as the current agreement expires at the end of 2020.

Finally, the Legislature recently voted to begin live-streaming all meetings through Chemung County’s website, found here. However, equipment in the Legislature’s Chambers is still being installed – something that may change by the time start of tonight’s meeting.

If the equipment installed, I will link the county’s live-stream to the Chemung County Matters Facebook page, found here. If not, I will stream it myself to Facebook as I have been doing for all in-person meetings since the start of 2019.

–Christina Sonsire