Political columnist John Settle lectures City Council on open meetings law
Settle lectures City Council on transparency after the infrastructure committee discussed items not on the agenda Tuesday.
Sara MacNeil, Shreveport Times
EASTON – To start off its Feb. 16 meeting, the members of the Easton School Committee entered a private room in their zoom call to discuss matters in an executive session, while the public was left to watch a black screen.
The topic of discussion, as listed on the agenda, was an Open Meeting Law complaint.
In the Massachusetts Attorney General’s review of the complaint, which was released on Feb. 6, Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Carnes Flynn found that the Easton School Committee had multiple Open Meeting Law violations throughout 2020 and 2021, including inappropriate use of executive session during a public meeting and insufficient executive session meeting minutes.
The complaint, originally submitted to the attorney general’s office in early May 2022, alleged that the committee discussed and voted on a contract with transportation company Lucini Transportation in an unnecessary executive session – a private meeting during the committee’s public meeting.
The complaint states that the contract negotiations and voting should have been held in a public meeting.
“The superintendent merely updated the committee and sought input on the potential need to make temporary adjustments under the existing transportation contract in light of school closures relating to COVID,” said the school committee, according to the review.
The attorney general’s review found that on April 29, 2021, the committee voted in an executive session to approve a memorandum of agreement with the transportation company.
Committees are allowed to discuss contracts in an executive session as long the contract is with a collective bargaining body – such as contracts with a teachers union. However, committees cannot use private meetings to discuss “vendor or services contracts” like with Lucini Transportation.
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On Feb. 16, Easton School Committee members entered another executive session to discuss the review of the complaint with Open Meeting Law expert Patrick Higgins.
“I am unable to comment on a meeting that took place in an executive session. I can assure you, however, that this matter has been handled appropriately and in accordance with Open Meeting Law procedures,” said Easton Superintendent Lisha Cabral.
What laws did the committee violate?
The complaint, submitted by Easton resident Kathleen Sheehan, charged the committee with six open meeting law violations, two of which were thrown out. Four were found to be accurate. The alleged charges include:
- Failure to timely approve executive session meeting minutes: denied due to the complaint not providing specific executive session meetings: thrown out.
- Failure to review old executive session meeting minutes to decide if they should be released to the public: violation.
- Failure to review executive session meeting minutes from April 8 after a request was filed: violation.
- Improper withholding of requested executive session minutes: denied due to the complaint not providing specific executive session meetings: thrown out.
- Insufficient executive session minutes: violation.
- Improper use of executive session: violation.
After Sheehan requested specific executive session meeting minutes, the committee was supposed to provide the minutes within 10 days, unless the committee had not yet completed a review of the minutes. In that case, the committee had 30 days to review and provide the requested minutes.
The attorney general found that the committee did not review or provide the minutes Sheehan requested in time, due to the fact that they had 44 sets of executive session minutes to read and approve, which “was the Committee’s own doing,” said the review.
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The committee admitted that they had failed to “periodically review” old executive session minutes, and has committed to reviewing executive session minutes four times each year and announcing such at the following meeting.
Additionally, the committee failed to create meeting minutes of executive sessions that sufficiently summarized what was discussed during the session.
“Meeting minutes should contain enough detail and accuracy so that a member of the public who did not attend the meeting could read the minutes and have a clear understanding of what occurred,” said the attorney general.
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Any documents used in discussions, a tally of which committee members were present and proper record of roll call votes – “even unanimous votes” – must be recorded in the minutes.
The attorney general ordered the committee to amend the minutes from April 29, Aug. 23, Sept. 1 and Sept. 30 in 2021, as well as Jan. 13, Jan. 27 and Feb. 17 in 2021, within the next 60 days.
In last Thursday’s executive session, the Easton School Committee discussed the matter with a lawyer. As the members popped back into the public Zoom meeting, they proceeded with the rest of the week’s business.
