Select Board Adjourns Special Meeting After Zoom License Blocks Hundreds of Residents

ROCKPORT — January 28, 2021 — Rockport's Select Board adjourned a special open-session personnel hearing Thursday after the town's Zoom account hit its 300-participant cap before the meeting could begin. Chair Ruth George and the full five-member board — including Vice Chair Don Campbell and Selectmen Sarah Wilkinson, Paul Murphy, and Ross Brackett — voted unanimously to adjourn within minutes of convening, with additional residents stacking up in the virtual waiting room unable to enter. Attorney Liam O'Connell, representing the employee at the center of the personnel matter, noted the capacity problem had been foreseeable: "This meeting is at capacity. I mean, this was very predictable." Officials said the school department holds a 500-person Zoom license and the town would seek a larger or unlimited one-time license before rescheduling, with the earliest possible new date — given the state's 48-hour open-meeting notice requirement — being Tuesday, February 2.