YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Youngstown's board of control meeting Thursday morning looked like many other public meetings for the last year and a half.

The Zoom calls and FaceTimes have gotten more mileage during that time than probably any other in our lives.
Attorney Dave Marburger says COVID was a rare circumstance that allowed the legislature some wiggle room in Ohio's "sunshine laws" - which required meetings discussing public business be advertised, attended in person, and open to anyone.
 
"They were allowed to meet in person but equally they were allowed to meet by zoom or by teleconference," said Marburger. "That was lawful as long as the public could also attend virtually or remotely."
 
But now that Ohio's COVID restrictions have been lifted, so has that exception. 
And the letter of the law says it's back to the old fashioned way when it comes to those public meetings.
"I think the takeaway from this is to educate the public and public bodies that yes, we are under old law," said Bridget Coontz, section chief of the Constitutional Services Section of the Ohio Attorney General's Office. "...local governing bodies, local public bodies would not be able to give themselves any sort of exceptions from the Open Meeting Act."
 
Which means even though the public could dial in to Thursday's Youngstown board of control meeting, it should've been held in person and not virtually.
Law director Jeff Limbian told 21 News that as a home-rule city, Youngstown could theoretically continue meeting virtually.
But given what the AG's office has said, the city will have its voting participants meeting in person going forward.
 
We checked around with other municipalities from our three Ohio counties, and learned they're all either back meeting in person or never went virtual in the first place.
 
We also talked to Denise Dick from Youngstown City Schools, whose board had a virtual board meeting set up for next Tuesday.
She told 21 News the board thought the exception for virtual meetings had been granted until the end of this year - but since that's not the case - they will revise their meeting schedule and meet in person.