(A) Any duly elected member of Council shall be permitted to participate in Council and committee meetings by means of a telecommunication device such as a telephone or computer terminals, which permit at a minimum audio communications between locations provided the borough comply with the following prerequisites.
(1) A majority of the membership of Council then in office must be physically present at the advertised meeting place for said meeting and a quorum is established at the convening or reconvening of the meeting. If after convening or reconvening a meeting, a member, who has been disqualified from voting as a matter of law but remains physically present at the meeting then in such case the member participating by telecommunication device shall be counted to maintain a quorum.
(2) The telecommunication device used by the member not actually in attendance at the meeting is such that both the Council members not physically present at the meeting and the members of Council physically at the meeting can speak and hear the votes and comments of any other Council member.
(3) The telecommunication device must allow all members to speak to and hear the comments of the public who are physically present and the vote of any members of Council not physically present at the meeting.
(B) The use of telecommunication devices by a Council member to participate in a Council or committee meeting shall only be permitted for the following instances, which preclude the Council member from being physically present at the meeting, to wit:
(1) Illness or disability of said member of Council;
(2) Care for the ill or newborn in the Council member’s immediate family;
(3) Emergency; or
(4) Family business and travel.
(C) A member of Council shall not be disqualified from voting on any issue before Council solely because the member has previously expressed an opinion on the issue either in an official or unofficial capacity.
(Res. 2015-02, passed 4-6-2015)