The following communication by the School Committee was distributed on October 3
Recently, there have been various public communications that we believe haven’t provided the complete picture about certain open meeting law complaints and public records requests made of the School Committee. We hope to provide you with more information about the steps the Committee has taken to address these issues.
The Open Meeting Law was enacted in order to provide communities with transparency and accountability of its official public bodies. The School Committee fully supports the Open Meeting Law and its intended purpose. It has many rules and regulations that govern the way public bodies must conduct its business. Some are administrative in nature and the Committee acknowledges that it has made certain mistakes in the past in this area. The Committee has recently put in place new policies and procedures to reduce the risk of making such mistakes again.
There are other regulations where a public body must make a judgment as to how to proceed. In this area, there may be disagreement. For example, two open meeting law complaints were filed against the School Committee. In one case the Attorney General agreed with the School Committee’s position that its union contract negotiating team is not a subcommittee. In the other case, the Attorney General believed the Committee should have used a different exemption to enter executive session. In these cases where the paths may not be clear, the Committee will endeavor to seek advice directly from the Attorney General whenever possible in order to reduce the cost to the town for legal services.
On a related matter, we also wanted to let you know that the School Committee recently entered into a settlement agreement with the Attorney General regarding two open meeting law complaints filed by George Harris and Donna Bouchard about the Committee’s June 3, 2013 executive session. In this agreement, “the Committee admits that, on June 3, 2013, the Committee posted inadequate notice of the purpose of the executive session. The Attorney General asserts that this was an intentional violation of the Open Meeting Law. The Committee denies that it acted intentionally to violate the Open Meeting Law.” In order to avoid a lengthy and costly legal proceeding for the Town, four of the five Committee members agreed to pay a reduced fine of $500 and have requested the Finance Committee use reserve funds since we believe it is not appropriate to ask volunteers to pay a fine for an unintentional violation with personal funds.
Finally, we recently enlisted the assistance of a member of the community who has expressed an interest in helping with our compliance with the Open Meeting Law. We hope this working relationship will improve the discourse and gain the trust of the community in the work of the School Committee.
With regard to the public records request made by GateHouse Media for executive session minutes related to the METCO account, it has been alleged in publications that the Committee is “resisting” a state order to release these documents. We have obligations, commitments and confidences which we must honor legally or possibly bring harm to and discredit individuals or the Town. The Supervisor of Public Records has communicated that its office has closed the appeal related to Gatehouse Media’s request for records from the School Department. The School Committee, in fact, is and has been working to have the related matters resolved appropriately through parties within the larger complex legal and regulatory network, of which we are a part, within the State. We understand that the situation has been frustrating and has taken a great deal of time to resolve as it is a complicated matter and all deliberations can only be conducted in a properly noticed meeting. When and if we are given leave to disclose the issues and actions involved, we will be pleased and relieved to do so. In the meantime, we need to trust the larger, legal and ethical procedures and frameworks to resolve this matter appropriately.
We hope that this information provides a fuller picture of the work of the School Committee. As always, we appreciate any feedback you would like to share. Thank you for your continued support.
Written by Wayland School Committee members Malcolm Astley, Jeanne Downs, Barb Fletcher and Ellen Grieco.
