More on Proposed Changes to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law

I found this article about the proposed changes to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law on the City Solicitors and Town Counsel Association's website. It has a discussion about the pros and cons of the proposed changes.

The article also indicates that there have been numerous times when the Open Meeting Law has been violated, sometimes intentionally. The Middlesex District Attorney's office reported receiving 29 complaints, issuing 11 formal opinion letters, and finding 6 violations in 2004. As of the date of the article, July 11, 2005, the office had issued 4 letters and found 3 violations in 2005. District Attorney Martha Coakley, who is running for Attorney General this year, notes that the district attorneys need more resources to be able to enforce the law which she feels is violated often because of a lack of understanding of the law.

Besides more resources and better enforcement of the Open Meeting Law, we also need to make people more aware of the Open Meeting Law and the Public Records Law. Most people seem to know what FOIA means, which applies to the federal government, but few people seem to know what the state laws are. There should be an effort to educate the public about the state laws as well.

In addition, local public officials must stop perceiving any one who invokes either of the two laws as the enemy. Instead, they should be welcoming such participation by citizens. One way to do this is to start posting more public records on the internet.