Mandatory Training in Confict-of-Interest and Open Meeting Laws

Here is an idea that should have taken hold a long time ago. As reported in the Boston Globe, the Town of Brookline recently adopted a bylaw that requires all town officials, except School Committee members, elected after September 26, 2006, to have training in the conflict-of- interest and the open meeting laws. The text of the bylaw is below.

What a brilliant idea. Maybe other towns will follow Brookline's example.


ARTICLE 3.20
MANDATORY EDUCATIONAL TRAINING
FOR ALL ELECTED AND APPOINTED OFFICIALS

3.20.1 APPLICABILITY
This by-law is intended to apply to all elected and
appointed officials (hereinafter collectively referred
to as “Elected and Appointed Officials”) who are
elected or appointed after the effective date of this
by-law. This by-law shall not apply to School
Committee members under any circumstances or Town
Meeting Members unless serving on a Committee as
defined in Section 1.1.4 (c) of these By-Laws, or to
Design Advisory Teams (DAT’s), or to committees formed
in individual schools, however constituted.

3.20.2 MANDATORY EDUCATIONAL TRAINING
All Elected and Appointed Officials shall within one
hundred and twenty (120) days before or after their
election or appointment to a Committee or Subcommittee,
attend an educational training seminar
hosted by the Office of Town Counsel which shall
include the requirements of the Open Meeting Law and
Conflict of Interest Law. In the alternative, members
may meet with Town Counsel, or a member of his/her
staff, to receive such information and training.

3.20.3 NOTICE OF COMPLIANCE
Upon completing the required training, Town Counsel
shall notify the Town Clerk and Town Administrator, in
writing, of the names of those Elected and Appointed
Officials who have completed the training.

3.20.4 NON-COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT
Should an Elected or an Appointed Official fail to
participate in the required training within the
mandatory one hundred and twenty (120) days, the Town
Administrator shall notify in writing the appointing
authority, the appropriate Chairman, and the Town
Clerk of the names of the individuals in non
compliance. It will be within the discretion of the
appointing authority to extend the time of compliance
an additional 30 days. The Town Clerk shall maintain a
Public Record of Compliance and Non-Compliance by
Elected and Appointed Officials, available for viewing
by the Public upon request.

Investigation of Open Meeting Law Violation by Needham Select Board

I have been catching up on the past three months worth of news about Open Meeting Law violations that I missed while on my short hiatus. I found this story about an investigation by the Norfolk County DA of Open Meeting Law violations by the Needham Board of Selectmen. According to the Globe article, the Needham Board has gone into executive session 53 times since 2004. The Board claims it has gone into executive sessions to negotiate leases or purchases of property.

The article also points out that the DA found the Needham School Committee violated the Open Meeting Law in October by engaging in serial emails in which the members shared opinions about an upcoming middle school vote. Apparently the Town of Needham does not provide training in Open Meeting Law to its town officials or else the town officials were not paying attention during the training. Or they just do not care.

Unions Sue Turnpike Authority Over Closed Meeting

In November, the Boston Globe reported that two unions representing employees at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority had filed a law suit against the Turnpike Authority over a closed meeting it held to discuss eliminating the tolls west of Route 128. The unions allege in the suit that the Turnpike Authority violated the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. They are asking the court to rescind the Turnpike Athority's decision to move forward with plans to eliminate some of the tolls. On December 19th, the Globe reported that the Superior Court judge handling the case has ruled that the Turnpike Authority complied with the Open Meeting Law, at least for part of the meeting, but she has ordered the Turnpike Authority to turn over additional information. The Herald reported that there also is an issue of attorney/client privilege. As far as I know, the case is still pending, even though the Globe reported on December 2nd that the judge intended to issue a decision before yesterday's meeting of the Turnpike Authority.

Survey of Other States

This fall the Virginia Coalition for Open Government surveyed a number of state open government organizations about various aspects of their states' open meeting and public records laws. The report of the survey can be downloaded from the VCOG website.

Report on websites for cities and towns now available online.

The Massachusetts Campaign for Open Government has issued its report on the local government websites around the commonwealth. You can download it at maopengov.org or by clicking here. You also can report any problems you encounter requesting public records or attending what should be an open meeting by going to the MACOG website and clicking on Report a violation at the top.

Back from Hiatus

So much has happened since my last post (which is partly the reason for it taking 3 months for me to post again). Massachusetts has a new Governor-elect, Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Campaign for Open Government has a newly designed website. We also have updated the list of those cities and towns that are posting their important governance records online. In March 2006 there were only 24; now there are 40. Not a huge increase, but it's a start.

The Massachusetts Campaign for Open Government is a project of Common Cause of Massachusetts. Common Cause plans to formally announce the newly designed website and the launch of the campaign on Monday, December 11th. Hopefully by next year, at least 120 communities will have all their governance records posted online.