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Plaistow ZBA agrees to draft bylaw changes, flags out‑of‑meeting communications
Summary
Members agreed to draft bylaw revisions and to address a communications policy after counsel warned that sequential out-of-meeting exchanges could violate RSA 91-A; Shea Ramaker will provide the current bylaws in Word format to the member drafting revisions.
Board members agreed to begin drafting updates to their bylaws, with a focus on communication procedures and preventing sequential out-of-meeting decision-making.
Theresa Kane volunteered to draft proposed bylaw language drawing on examples from other towns; Jim Unger noted one town's guidance on communication as a helpful model. Counsel Will Reddington cautioned the board that they "must be very careful with board communication outside of meetings because you might get responses back and sequential communication runs afoul of 91-A." He recommended that the board adopt a distributing-policy that preserves public discussion for meetings and avoids sequential exchanges among members outside a posted meeting.
Planning Technician Shea Ramaker said she would send the existing bylaws in Word format to Kane to support drafting. Board members agreed a working draft is needed and that drafting would begin before the next meeting. No formal bylaw vote was taken at this session.
