An Open Meeting Law complaint against the Select Board, filed April 24 by Harvard Press editor John Osborn on behalf of the Press, has been resolved to the Press’ satisfaction.
The complaint involved a March 26 letter to the editor, written by Select Board Chair Rich Maiore, announcing that the Select Board would add two to four members of the public to the Town Administrator Search Committee. The board had just voted at its March 19 meeting to create a seven-person search committee with no members of the public. Select Board members Don Ludwig and Charles Oliver and former member Erin McBee also signed the letter.
A little less than a month after publishing the letter, the Press filed a complaint stating that no vote or discussion in a public meeting regarding the change in composition of the search committee had taken place. It asked that the board remedy this situation by discussing and voting on adding members of the public before the search committee brought forward any recommended candidates.
The board subsequently voted April 30 to add two members of the public, as well as Executive Assistant Julie Doucet, to the Town Administrator Search Committee. In a meeting May 1, Maiore acknowledged receiving the complaint and said the board had remedied the situation by its vote the week before.
Maiore said, “This is on me,” and he thanked Osborn for what the Press editor called a “tap on the shoulder.” Maiore also sent a letter to the Press, saying that his March 26 letter to the editor “inadvertently violated” the Open Meeting Law. He added that the board had satisfied the remedy sought in the complaint. Maiore also sent a copy of his written response to the attorney general’s office, as the law requires.
In a May 15 statement on behalf of the Press, Osborn said the Press was “pleased with the action taken by the Select Board at its May 9 meeting,” and it considers the matter closed.
