More On Open Meeting Decision Against The Boston City Council

You can find a copy of the decision posted on one of the plaintiff's website. The case was brought by three Boston citizens: Shirley Kressel (co-founder of Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods, Kevin McCrea (a former city council candidate), and Kathleen Devine. They were not represented by a lawyer in the case.

Court Finds Boston City Council Violated Open Meeting Law

A disturbing story is in today’s Boston Globe. A superior court judge ruled yesterday that the Boston City Council violated the Open Meeting Law 11 times over a period of about two years. Significantly, the judge is quoted as writing, “the meetings were conducted in a manner which was calculated to thwart the presumptive rights of the public…” According to the story, in meetings between the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Boston City Council members, a BRA staffer counted the number of councilors in the room at any one time to make sure there were no more than six councilors present at any one time. The City Council then argued that without a quorum, the Open Meeting Law did not apply.

The actions of the Boston City Council, as reported in this case, are unacceptable. Governing bodies should not be trying to find ways around the Open Meeting Law. To comply with the spirit of the law, if not the language of the law, all meetings should be open to the public, unless there is an extremely good reason for closing a meeting and that reason fits within one of the very narrow exceptions to the Open Meeting Law. (Even when a situation fits one of the exceptions to the Open Meeting Law, the language of the statute is that a governing body may close a meeting to the public under certain specific circumstances, not that it must close a meeting.) As Councilor Felix Arroyo states in the Globe article, “It’s important the council not only comply with, but defend the open meeting law.”

Housing Regulation Database

If you are looking for information about zoning regulations for your community and they are not posted on your municipality's website, then check out the searchable database developed by Harvard's Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the Pioneer Institute. The database contains information about the zoning codes, subdivision requirements, and environmental regulations for 187 eastern Massachusetts communities.

Massachusetts Campaign For Open Government Becomes A Project of Common Cause Massachusetts

This week the Massachusetts Campaign For Open Government officially became a project of Common Cause Massachusetts.

Updated Information About Local Government Websites

Updated information about which Massachusetts municipalities have websites and whether they post essential public records online was posted on the website for the Massachusetts Campaign For Open Government on Thursday. Although some of the names have changed, the numbers have not changed much from the last time the review was conducted about 6 months ago. Of the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, 308 now have a web presence. Only 23 municipalities post all the essential records online. Sixty-seven (67) municipalities had websites but posted none of the essential public records. Forty-three (43) municipalities have no website. So, about a third of all municipalities still do not post the essential public records on the internet.

The review of the local government websites was a little different this time. We reviewed each website to see if the municipality posted the governing body’s agenda, the governing body’s minutes, fiscal year 2006 budget information, and the municipality’s bylaws, code or ordinances. For towns with the town meeting form of government, we also reviewed the website to see if the municipality had posted the town meeting warrant and the town meeting results. In the previous review, the town meeting warrant and results were included in one category.

With the help of a number of Common Cause Massachusetts volunteers, updating the review took over three weeks to finish, just in time for Sunshine Week. The Massachusetts Campaign for Open Government website has been updated a little as well, but we intend to make it even easier to use and more informative over the next couple of months.

Sunshine Week This Week

We are in the midst of the second annual Sunshine Week. The goal of Sunshine Week is to increase awareness of the importance of open government.

We also are still in the midst of updating the information on the Massachusetts Campaign For Open Government website about the websites for local governments in Massachusetts. The new, more accurate data should be posted by the end of this week, so check it out on Friday.