Next Monday, March 7, will mark the first in-person meeting of Livingston Township’s Council in nearly two years. It also marks the second major governing body in the community to return to meeting in the same room; the Livingston Board of Education has been holding its meetings in a hybrid format, allowing people to attend in-person for several months. It is also reasonable to expect the township’s Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment to both follow the Council’s lead in the coming weeks or months.While the pandemic that forced meetings to be held virtually for so long has not dissipated and COVID is still a threat, it feels like now is a realistic time to return to meetings in a shared space. Mask mandates are ending in schools, cases have leveled off after the massive omicron spike, and Livingston is a highly vaccinated and boosted community. Even the remaining Essex County vaccination and testing sites are in the process of winding down.All this is to say, if now is not a good time to return inperson, will there ever be one?Now, saying it is a fair time to return to in-person meetings and expecting everybody to feel safe attending are two different things. And those who wish to continue to view Council meetings from the safety (and comfort) of their own homes will still be able to do so. The meetings will continue to be livestreamed on the Livingston Township, NJ Facebook page, as they have been since March of 2020. A new setup in the Town Hall chambers will record and broadcast the meetings for the livestreams.This is a small silver lining that came out of this pandemic – more equitable access for all to view meetings. Frankly, it could have and should have been done years ago.Along with the return to meeting at Town Hall, public comment will now once again be able to be made in-person. Additionally, people will be allowed to email comments to be read aloud at the meeting until 4:30 p.m. on the day of a meeting, a procedure carried over from the virtual meetings.There have been requests by some (several of whom, it should be noted, do not live in town), to continue to allow people to call into meetings to comment, as well. Specifically, these commenters say that equitable access for people with disabilities who are unable to attend meetings will ...
