Essex Town Council will have to stop playing with their phones at meetings.
Members unanimously approved a motion at Monday night's meeting to limit the use of their cellphones while meetings are in progress. Councillor Randy Voakes and Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche were absent.
The motion was introduced two weeks ago by Mayor Ron McDermott, whose request regarding councillors using cellphones seems pretty simple.
"Shut it off, put it on the table. If it vibrates, answer it if it's an emergency," says McDermott.
McDermott says if it's a council member checking up on a family member who is ill, there is no problem.
If councillors are constantly using Facebook and Twitter during the meetings, arranging social calls or texting, it's another story, especially when delegations present material to council that requires their undivided attention.
The mayor raised the alarm on phone usage during the last council meeting. McDermott had accused a council member of using Facebook during the meeting to post disrespectful comments about him, and says other members often text each other.
"I know for a fact they've texted each other -- council members text each other during the meeting," says McDermott. "They text the people that are in the crowd. This has got to stop, that's all I'm saying."
McDermott says it falls under the town's code of professional conduct, and that he had stopped asking members to switch off their electronic devices before the meeting because they have not been complying. Now that the motion has been approved, the mayor is confident the issue is behind council once and for all.
"I think that, now that it's out in the open," says McDermott, "we're all going to be aware of what's happening. They're going to be better. I'll bet money, if I was a gambler."
The mayor says council will meet soon to spell out guidelines for phone use during meetings.