“Never on Sunday”? That hit song from the early 1960s suddenly seemed relevant to contemporary Harvard when library trustees tried to follow the Open Meeting Law by posting a notice with the town for a long-range planning session to be held Sunday, Dec. 2. Town Clerk Marlene Kenney told trustee Chair Davida Bagatelle it was against town policy to post Sunday meetings. The attorney general’s office, Kenney explained, considered Sunday meetings not to be “best practice.”
Town Administrator Tim Bragan later confirmed Kenney’s information in an interview. He described refusing to post Sunday meetings as “an unwritten policy” that Harvard had established long before his time in town. Bragan said he suspected the ban dated back to the state’s blue laws, which restricted many secular activities on Sundays for religious reasons.
Hanne Rush, spokesperson for the Division of Open Government in the attorney general’s office, confirmed by phone that the Open Meeting Law discourages Sunday meetings but does not forbid them. She referred to the Open Meeting Law website, which states, “While the Open Meeting Law is silent with regard to holding public meetings on Sundays, the best practice is not to hold public meetings on Sundays or holidays when access to public buildings may be limited and when the public does not normally anticipate the scheduling of a public meeting.”
However, Rush pointed out that the purpose of the Open Meeting Law is to encourage governmental transparency. And, she said, if a town refuses to post a meeting held on a Sunday, that reduces transparency rather than supporting it.
The town’s stance left the library planning group in a quandary. Because Sunday was the day most members of the group could attend, as well as when the out-of-state consultant was available, Bagatelle checked with the attorney general’s office, sent an announcement to the Press, and held the meeting as scheduled. But the meeting never appeared on the town website.
A look back on the town’s calendar for 2018 shows nearly all Sundays empty of public meetings. But, somewhat confusingly, the town did post two Sunday meetings by the Fourth of July Committee in January and March this year. And Saturday meetings, while rare compared to those on weekdays, are not barred from the official calendar.
As for neighboring towns, officials in Bolton, Boxborough, and Shirley all said unhesitatingly that they would post a Sunday meeting, so as to comply with the Open Meeting Law. The town clerk in Stow said it would be highly unusual to have a Sunday meeting but agreed it would have to be posted. Ayer’s town clerk said the issue had never come up, so she would check with the attorney general before posting.
