Citizens and even Select Board members have been stymied when trying to obtain the minutes of public meetings. Massachusetts has several laws that govern access to public records and that provide for open government.
The Public Records Act has requirements for the maintenance and availability of records. The Public Record Act can be found here. The Attorney General's guidelines can be found here. The maintenance and production of public records is not an optional activity. Governments within Massachusetts are required to follow this law. There is no exemption for executive session minutes. They are also public records and must be released when the need for the confidentiality of executive session has passed.
The Open Meeting Law was passed to ensure ...
... that governments act with transparency and accountability. The Open Meeting Law can be found here. There are only a few exceptions that allow meetings of government bodies to be held out of public view. They are listed in the law and in this guideline in section D
I am aware of several instances where requests for information have not been handled in accordance with these statutes and in my opinion, there is no excuse for that. Some have pointed out that the town employees are busy. While that may be true, it does not excuse the town from complying with the law.
What do you think?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Meeting Minutes and Open Meeting Law
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13 comments:
It is easy to get caught up in the day to day requirements of the job of EA so I can understand how this has happened. It should not be an excuse however for the non-release of these records. I think the proper course in this case for Michael was to make a stand some time ago that w/o the addtional help something would have to be dropped lower on the priority list to accomplish that which is required by law. Or another option would have been to make a case for a reserve fund transfer to hire a temp to get caught up. Make the issue of not enough time a priority. Failing that, it's hard to ignore not having the information from years back available. This makes a large assumption all exec sessions whose purpose 'has been served' are the ones in question. It also assumes that someone(s) is not barraging the EA with requests for information so as to corner the EA and get something 'on him'.
Providing the residents of Dartmouth with executive session minutes is mandated by law. This is a priority for our EA.This is not about,'when I have time'. Record keeping is a top priority of the EA's job responsibilities.It is stated in the town charter and in MGL. Funny how the minutes that the residents have been asking for are buried under almost three years of executive minutes that have never been approved or made public. I, like many others, want answers.
Did anyone say please? Maybe that's the problem? :^)
Gagne had his chance to leave with his dignity intact. By his own doing, he has chosen to have some of the less than honorable things he has been doing over the past several years get exposed to the public.
Bill, First, I would like to get an understanding of the wind studies done for the Town of Dartmouth. The studies excluded the months of July and August the two lower wind speed months of the year. By excluding the months of July and August the town has the correct amount of average wind speed to go forward with engineering studies. Do you think this is the correct way to go forward with a commercial wind turbine project?
Second, Who met with representatives of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative from Dartmouth and are those minutes available? If not why?
The point here is $5000.00 has been allocated for engineering studies for a commercial wind turbine in Dartmouth . At some point in time there has to be hand written notes about the meetings . Are there executive minutes that involve the installation of commercial wind turbines ?
Umass Amherst errected a test tower at the Chase rd water treatment plant and monitored it for close to a year . This was done two years ago, they found that the wind was not enough to be worth the cost of the turbine..What more can they do??
Umass Amherst errected a test tower at the Chase rd water treatment plant and monitored it for close to a year . This was done two years ago, they found that the wind was not enough to be worth the cost of the turbine..What more can they do??
The report of the Alternative Energy Committee(AEC) should be available at the Town Hall. It includes the data from the monitoring done in the town. Contact the Select Board office at 508-910-1813 to find out how to get a copy. The AEC would not have a need for executive session and the records of the committee should be available at Town Hall as well. Since I have been on the Board we have been briefed by the AEC about their findings and were informed by the Executive Administrator that he had authorized the expenditure for the engineering.
Now we're chasing windmills too! I love it. Robert Goulet would have been very proud.
The proper reference is "tilting at windmills" I believe.
I remember his saying he had authorized this expenditure.
Thanks Miguel, you are correct of course, however I chose 'chasing' as it better describes how our town seems determined to 'chase' any good ideas, or people out of town in their never-ending witch hunts.
I for one would encourage any alternative energy initiatives in town. That doesn't mean however, that these large industrial wind turbines should be erected willy nilly without proper scrutiny. I would suggest waiting for the engineering consultants report to come back and at least one proper open hearing to take place before jumping to any conclusions. The research stage is still in its infancy. Dr. Dipippo has put a lot of hard work into the alternative energy committee. Let's give these proposals a chance to become a little more detailed before we all start taking sides on the issue.
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