Medford state legislators are speaking out about the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT) decision to cancel a May 5 public meeting on changes to the Green Line Extension just days before a vote on the project’s future.

The meeting, planned to take place at St. Clement’s Parish Hall, was the last in a series of gatherings scheduled by MassDOT to solicit public feedback as the state drew up plans for a scaled-back version of the project.

It was the second meeting planned in Medford — MassDOT hosted a March 23 forum on the rail extension at Tufts University. But state Rep. Christine Barber said many residents were planning to attend the May 5 meeting, only to learn April 27 it had been canceled.

“This was the Medford meeting that I know a lot of my constituents were looking forward to speaking at,” Barber said. “And it was the last opportunity to weigh in.”

On the afternoon of May 5, hours before the Medford meeting as originally scheduled, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) voted to start the process of reallocating more than $190 million in federal funding for a Route 16 station to the GLX’s first phase, which ends at College Avenue.

Then, on May 9, the MassDOT Board of Directors and MBTA Fiscal Management and Control Board approved a scaled-back, $2.3 billion plan for the project — which for now does not include funding for the construction of a station at Route 16 in Medford.

Before the two key votes, Barber and four other state legislators — Sen. Patricia Jehlen, Rep. Sean Garballey and Reps. Tim Toomey and Denise Provost — sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker expressing “continued frustration with the abrupt cancelation” of the May 5 meeting in Medford.

“The public meeting process has been insufficient to give our constituents time for input and time to grapple with the changes to the project,” the group wrote in the letter. “The last-minute cancelation of the May 5 meeting and the apparent refusal to reschedule the meeting has left many of our constituents who had planned to attend the meeting with no opportunity to see the revised plans or speak about them.”

The group wrote the administration about the meeting April 28, the day after it was canceled; and again May 5. As of Monday, Barber said Baker’s office still had not responded to the letters.

“Canceling the meeting, not allowing this public process, is really detrimental to Medford,” Barber said, “and, we think, not in the spirit of what the administration was talking about.”

The decision looked even worse, legislators added, when the cities of Cambridge and Somerville announced they were pledging a combined $75 million to help the state pay for the extension.

Mayor Stephanie M. Burke said Medford is not contributing to the project’s first phase because of minimal economic development opportunities created by the College Avenue station, as cited in a study by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).

But given the project’s budget issues — the scaled-back version is still $73 million short on funding — it remains possible the state will also ask Medford to chip in.

“By minimizing input from community stakeholders at this critical phase in planning, the administration is disregarding the voices of those who will live with the decisions made around the GLX project for generations to come,” the group wrote to Baker.

Added Barber: “Especially now when they’re requesting funding from the cities, not allowing the community members to talk about what they want this project to look like is I think really a smack in the face by the administration. They’re asking communities to pay and not have a voice in the process.”