Website Issues Shut Down Committees

 HARWICH – Several boards and committees, including the select board, had to cancel meetings last week after a security certification issue prevented access to the town’s website. 
 The website includes official postings of public meetings. Its inaccessibility on Jan. 20 meant that the provisions of the state Open Meeting Law were not being met.
“Yes, we had a technical issue with the website, and clearly that is how the town is informed of agendas and such,” Select Board member Jeffrey Handler said. “Town counsel’s advice was to cancel.”
Town Administrator Joseph Powers provided an update on the outage at the select board’s Jan. 27 meeting. The problem centered on the site’s SSL certificate, used to protect sensitive information from being stolen, he said. Without a security certificate, most web browsers will not access a site. 
Powers said the shutdown was the fault of CivicPlus, the website town’s contractor.
The website was inaccessible from Monday morning into early Wednesday, Select Board Chair Julie Kavanagh said, although some people using advance access were able to get to the site. Kavanagh said she talked with town counsel, who could not reach the website from her computer. To be safe, counsel recommended board and committee meetings be canceled.
The problem was not the town’s fault, Kavanagh said. The certificate should have been renewed automatically by the vendor, but that did not happen, she said.
When asked if public notification was issued by the town, Kavanagh said to her knowledge there was no notification sent out, but some town departments posted the information on social media. 
 “Where the website was down for more than six hours within 48 business hours of the scheduled select board meeting, they did cancel,” Town Clerk Emily Mitchell wrote in an email. “The website has been restored, but other public meetings this week that were scheduled within 48 hours of the downtime will also be impacted.”
 On Monday at 3 p.m., the fire department posted on social media that “the town was made aware of a certificate issue with the town’s website. The issue is currently preventing access.Town staff and vendors are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We will provide updates as soon as we receive information.” 
 Mark Ameres, a member of the finance committee, wrote on social media that the certificate was valid from Oct. 21, 2024  through Jan. 19, 2025.
Housing Authority Chair Elizabeth Harder was scheduled on Tuesday evening to provide the authority’s and the housing committee’s annual reports to the select board, but her husband, Ameres, discovered the meeting was cancelled after tuning in to the town’s cable channel. She did not receive official word about the meeting being cancelled. 
“It’s unfortunately so typical that I received no notice that I didn’t have to attend,” she wrote on social media.
The conservation commission and board of health also cancelled meetings, along with the Treasure Chest committee and community preservation committee, according to Mitchell. 
Powers said the lack of a certificate did not pose a threat to town records. The town was disappointed with the response from the vendor. IT Director Sarah Eaton contacted the company when the town learned of the outage Monday afternoon and did not hear back until Tuesday. Powers called the lack of engagement and service “unacceptable.”  
Select Board member Peter Piakarski asked if the town was planning to take any action against the company. Powers said a full report from CivicPlus will be studied before considering any action