North Adams Council, Committee Respond to OML Complaints
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council and two of its committees are answering Open Meeting Law complaints filed in June.
The complaints filed on June 30 were brought by council candidate Jennifer Barbeau.
Barbeau accused the Community Development Committee for not filing minutes and documents for three meetings; the General Government Committee for not announcing the meeting was being recorded and "prohibiting" her from recording it; and city councilors for failing to file Open Meeting Law and conflict of interest certificates.
All three panels held special meetings last week to answer the complaints. The chairs had not been made aware of them until the 14 business days to respond were nearly over.
Council Vice President Lisa Blackmer at Thursday's special meeting of the City Council on Aug. 19, said she had been forwarded that complaint at 10:25 a.m. on Aug. 16, almost immediately after the resignation of then President Jason LaForest.
As of Thursday, all but two councilors had signed their annual certificates; one was to do so on Friday and the other as soon as they were available. All were to be completed by the meeting of Sept. 4.
Councilor Benjamin Lamb said he was "surprised" that the complaint called on certain councilors by name when the full council was in violation.
"The only councilor to actually comply with this Open Meeting Law, specifically signed document was Councilor LaForest previous to his departure," he said. "But not every councilor was indicated on the document. It was very specific names that were identified, not the full council."
The complaint named Lamb as well as Councilors Peter Oleskiewicz, Bryan Sapienza, Jessica Sweeney, Keith Bona, Lisa Blackmer and Wayne Wilkinson. It did not name LaForest or Marie T. Harpin.
The complaint against Community Development was that it had not filed minutes and supportive documentation for the Dec 16, 2020, and the May 5 and June 9 meetings. The committee met Tuesday, Aug. 17, after learning about the complaint the Friday before.
Lamb, the chairman, said the Dec. 16 minutes and documents were submitted to the city clerk on Feb. 4, 2021. According to ordinance, changed in 2017, minutes are to submitted to the clerk within two weeks of a meeting.
"The delay in these materials being submitted was caused by myself, having two deaths in the family and a death of a family pet, as well as a concussion that I experienced in January, which impeded my ability to spend time on my computer for several weeks," he said.
The May 5 meeting was not held because it was posted improperly so was rescheduled to June 9. Those minutes were submitted by email to the clerk on June 12.
The June 20 meeting was held via Zoom and recorded as all remote meetings have been. These minutes and documents were filed on Aug. 10.
"So, all of the materials have been submitted and all but the July 20, 2021, meetings had been submitted prior to this complaint being submitted," Lamb said.
Barbeau also referred to audio of the meeting being posted without documentation. Lamb said the audio was posted to the city website to ensure people who missed the meeting could at least hear it until the video was loaded by Northern Berkshire Community Television. The station had run into some difficulties in getting videos online, he said.
The council approved a rule in March to have Zoom meetings of committee forwarded to NBCTV for public posting online.
Sapienza, a new member of the committee, said it sounded like some of the issues had been technical in getting things posted. Plus, he said, the new city clerk and assistant have been "overwhelmed with work" in learning their positions.
Lamb said it has also been a challenge in getting the old minutes ported over to the new website.
A member of the General Government committee could not attend Thursday's meeting so it will meet again on Tuesday to respond. The complaint had been that Barbeau was not given the opportunity to record a meeting because she could not inform the chair she would be recording.
Correction: the General Government meeting was not held over Zoom. This has been corrected.
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