In late February, as the final decisions on the town’s budget were being made, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee and the Finance Committee both asked Harvard Cable TV not to broadcast their meetings, according to a Harvard Cable volunteer and the station’s access coordinator. A Harvard resident had requested that one of the meetings be broadcast, said access coordinator Robert Fernandez.
The capital committee met on Thursday, Feb. 23, with members of the Finance Committee also invited to attend. Fernandez told the Press that he had told the resident who requested it that the meeting would be covered.
Laura Vilain, a Harvard Cable volunteer and an associate member of the Finance Committee, said that she was setting up audio and video equipment when capital committee chairman George McKenna came back to the equipment room and told her not to tape or broadcast the meeting.
Besides being chairman of the capital committee, McKenna is also a voting member of the Finance Committee.
Vilain called Fernandez at the station, Fernandez said, and he came over “to find out what the problem was and how it could be resolved,” as he put it. Also present was Selectman Peter Warren. Warren represents the Board of Selectmen on the capital committee and is liaison to the cable committee.
According to Fernandez’s email account of events, Warren asked Town Administrator Tim Bragan whether or not the meeting should be broadcast, and Bragan told Warren not to broadcast the meeting.
“At that time, we packed up our equipment and left,” Fernandez concluded.
Asked by the Press if he had made the decision not to broadcast the meeting, Bragan said, “That is incorrect, and I don’t have time to talk to you.”
Warren, when asked about the event, said, “I’m not going to talk about it. I think it has been discussed enough.”
However, Warren said he had seen Fernandez’s email account. Asked if the account was accurate, he said, “I think so. I’d have to read it word for word, but it’s pretty close.”
McKenna did not return calls for comment.
Massachusetts’s open meeting law states, “After notifying the chair of the public body, any person may make a video or audio recording of an open session of a meeting of a public body, or may transmit the meeting through any medium, subject to reasonable requirements of the chair as to the number, placement and operation of equipment used so as not to interfere with the conduct of the meeting. At the beginning of the meeting the chair shall inform other attendees of any such recordings.”
The Finance Committee also barred Harvard Cable from its Feb. 25 meeting, Vilain said. According to Vilain, she had been broadcasting Finance Committee meetings over the preceding several months. But after the Feb. 18 meeting, Vilain said, one member of the committee said he was uncomfortable with the taping. Vilain said that she wanted to continue to broadcast the meetings, but Finance Committee chair Marie Fagan decided against doing so.
Fagan did not return calls for comment.
The publicly posted agendas for the Finance Committee indicate that each meeting is to begin with the chairman reading the following statement: “In accordance with the State’s Open Meeting Law and Federal Wiretapping laws, we wish all who attend to know that this meeting is being taped by the Town’s Cable Access group, members of the press, and from time to time, members of the public.”
Mitch Norcross, chairman of the town’s Community Cable Access Committee, said that his committee will review the incidents and discuss their policies and procedures for the future. Both Norcross and John Ball, also a member of the cable committee, said they were surprised at the committees’ actions.
“I don’t think this has ever happened before,” Ball said. “Most committees are enthusiastic about being broadcast.”
The Community Cable Access Committee is scheduled to meet next on Monday, March 12, 7 p.m.
