Rising Sun approves emergency amendment allowing virtual meetings, video time‑stamping

The Town of Rising Sun approved Ordinance 2022-05 as an emergency amendment to chapter 2 of the town code, giving the town explicit authority to hold virtual meetings under certain public‑need circumstances and requiring time-stamped video annotations for agenda items.

Town Administrator (speaker 1) said the changes reflect lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and seek to make public meetings more accessible and easier to research. “If there’s a public need to have a virtual meeting, we won’t … be operating in contrast to what our town code calls for,” the administrator said, adding the ordinance is not intended to allow virtual meetings out of convenience.

The ordinance updates article 1 (Board Organization and Procedure) to adopt current sequencing from Robert’s Rules, clarifies how motions are made and recorded, and removes conflicting language that previously suggested speakers needed to submit written notice seven days in advance to offer routine public comment. The administrator said the clerk will review recorded meeting video and add timestamps next to agenda items to help residents find specific discussions in recorded footage.

Moderator (speaker 2) moved and the commission voted by voice to declare the ordinance an emergency and to adopt it. The presiding officer announced, “Ordinance 2022-05 has passed.” The meeting transcript records affirmative voice votes but does not include a roll-call tally.

The ordinance was described as a procedural update; the meeting did not include a detailed implementation schedule for time-stamping or a policy for virtual meeting technology beyond the ordinance language itself.

Next steps: staff will implement the administrative changes outlined in the ordinance; specifics about when time-stamping will appear in published videos were not given during the meeting.