AGO Finds Williamstown Select Board Violated Open Meeting Law
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Attorney General's Office has determined the Select Board violated the Open Meeting Law by holding a "serial communication" regarding the employment status of the then-interim town manager.
The violation was found by the AGO during its review of emails submitted by the town in response to a different but related OML complaint.
Resident Janice Loux filed an April 20 complaint against the board, alleging that it violated the law when a quorum of board members discussed with interim Town Manager Charlie Blanchard the employment status of interim Police Chief Mike Ziemba.
In a letter to the town counsel dated Aug. 19, Assistant Attorney General Carrie Benedon writes that the Select Board did not violate the Open Meeting Law in the police chief discussion because the authority to hire a chief rested entirely with the town manager, per the town charter.
"A discussion is outside a body's jurisdiction where it concerns a decision over which the body has no authority," Benedon wrote. "Public bodies do not violate the Open Meeting Law when they advise an official on a decision that the official has sole authority to make outside of the public body's jurisdiction.
"We note that the [Select] Board did not, for example, merely delegate its own authority to appoint a Police Chief to the Town Manager. Rather, the Charter vests the full authority to appoint a Police Chief with the Town Manager, and by extension, the Temporary Town Manager, who 'perform[s] the duties of the office.' "
According to Loux's complaint, she learned of the discussion about the police chief through a public records request dated Feb. 16.
That request yielded a chain of emails between Oct. 31 and Nov. 21 that indicated all five members of the board responded (either by email or in person) to Blanchard's Oct. 31 request for feedback on his intention to offer Ziemba a three-year contract to serve as chief.
On Nov. 22, the Select Board extended Blanchard's employment agreement with the town and included language stating that the, " 'Interim Town Manager agrees not to appoint a police chief except upon 14 days advance written notice to the Select Board of his intent to appoint a specific named individual, which appointment shall not be effective until the expiration of such 14-day period,' " according to Benedon's letter.
The Attorney General's Office determined that emails on Nov. 21 between Andrew Hogeland, Hugh Daley and Wade Hasty and on Nov. 22 between Hogeland and Jeffrey Johnson show the board members discussed the extension to Blanchard's employment agreement outside of a posted meeting, as required by the OML.
"While we find that the Board did not violate the Open Meeting Law with respect to its discussion of hiring a permanent police chief as that topic was not within the Board’s jurisdiction, we caution the Board that various other elements of its discussion fell within its jurisdiction," Benedon's letter reads.
According to the Aug. 19 letter, the Select Board acknowledged there is "room for the perception that a quorum of the Board engaged in an email 'deliberation,' " but the board argued that any violation was cured by the disclosure of the offending emails to Loux and the AGO.
"We find that disclosing the emails to one community member and our office is insufficient to inform the public of the discussions regarding the extension of Mr. Blanchard’s employment agreement," the letter reads. "We order the Board to make the emails available to the public, either by reading them aloud at an open meeting, or by attaching the emails to the minutes of an open meeting."
Williamstown Select Board OML Violation by iBerkshires.com on Scribd
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