Not so transparent? Local officials lag on releasing closed-session records
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Second of three parts
As local governments post more information on Web sites in the name of transparency, including reams of agendas and meeting minutes, records of closed-door deliberations remain notably absent.
Instead, they stay under wraps in filing cabinets of municipal offices - often for years.
Closed-session meeting minutes remain hidden from the public in several area communities long after the lawful purpose for holding those sessions has ended, a Gazette review of minutes in five cities and towns finds.
For years, the state attorney general's office has recommended that government bodies adopt policies requiring the periodic review and release of executive session minutes when exemptions in the law no longer apply.
Such policies, the AG's Open Meeting Law guidelines state, "will help ensure that closed session minutes are kept secret only as long as needed and as authorized under the law."
But a Gazette review finds that executive session meeting minutes are rarely reviewed or approved for release by local officials, at least not with any regularity. In most cases, it takes prodding by the public or news media to prompt those reviews, which become even more time-consuming and yield mixed results.
As long as those minutes remain impounded, the public is not getting a full accounting of government action, a right protected under the Open Meeting Law. The purpose of the law is to eliminate secrecy surrounding the deliberations and decisions on which public policy is based.
In recent months, the Gazette sought access to a selection of executive session meeting minutes from city councils and select boards in five area communities. The newspaper filed written public records requests for those records, to which four of the five communities responded within 10 working days, as the state's Public Records Law requires.
This story describes what the newspaper found.
Hadley
The Board of Selectmen in Hadley held 14 executive sessions in 2009, according to town records. The board does not have a policy in place to review and release its closed-session meeting minutes periodically, nor does it appear to do so from its records. In addition, the town did not respond to the Gazette's Feb. 22 written request for those records in writing or verbally within 10 days.
The closed-door meetings last year addressed a variety of subjects, from pending litigation and personnel matters to labor issues and contract negotiations, according to a review of meeting agendas at Town Hall.
Contacted this week, Town Administrator David G. Nixon said he has assembled and reviewed the information and is still working on the newspaper's request for the release of those minutes.
"I need to bring this to the board," he said. "All of the responsibility lies with me."
Easthampton
The Gazette sought executive session meeting minutes of the Easthampton City Council's Appointments Subcommittee, which held two closed-door powwows seven months ago.
According to an executive session checklist used by the three-member panel, the sessions were held to discuss the reappointment of the city's principal assessor, Mark Dimauro, last August and September. In moving into closed session, the subcommittee cited an exemption in the Open Meeting Law that allows for deliberations on the reputation and character of an individual.
Shortly after those sessions were held, the full City Council unanimously approved Dimauro's reappointment as city assessor, though it was conditioned on his "signed acknowledgment and successful completion" of unnamed stipulations on file with the city's personnel office. One councilor abstained from voting.
Nearly six months after Dimauro's reappointment, the city denied the Gazette's requests for the executive session meeting minutes, but did not cite the applicable exemption in the Open Meeting Law. Letters from John H. Fitz-Gibbon, the city's attorney, state only that publication of the minutes would defeat the lawful purposes of the executive sessions.
"I have no idea of what possibly could be pending," said Easthampton Mayor Michael A. Tautznik, when asked about the matter and why it remains secret.
Northampton
The Gazette sought executive session minutes from five Northampton City Council meetings for the third time in as many years. One of those sessions, held more than four years ago, was released this month after repeated requests by the newspaper. The secret contents?
The brief minutes of that Feb. 2, 2006, session note "there was a moderate discussion regarding the cleanup of the Round House lot" and "there was a brief discussion about zoning and the possibility of lawsuits."
Former City Solicitor Janet M. Sheppard briefed the council on the status of litigation and "went through the different cases briefly," the minutes revealed. "She stated that the newest case is regarding a parking ticket appeal."
Lastly, City Attorney Elaine M. Reall provided the council with an update on collective bargaining.
Of the closed-session meeting minutes sought by the Gazette, the City Council last week released records from three sessions held from 2006 to 2008. The city declined to release minutes from two executive sessions held three years ago, citing an exemption in the Open Meeting Law that allows for the discussion of strategy involving collective bargaining or litigation, which must be ongoing to qualify for exempt status.
Last year, city officials vowed to establish a new policy for the periodic review and release of the council's executive session minutes. They did that after a controversy erupted over the shredding of the council's executive session notes in the basement of City Hall. To date, the council still does not have such a policy in place, but the council's rule makers plan to discuss the matter soon, according to Northampton City Council President David J. Narkewicz.
"It's going to be on our agenda for our April meeting," Narkewicz said.
Southampton
In Southampton, the Board of Selectmen held 14 executive sessions in 2009, meetings that primarily involved labor negotiations and litigation. The town does not have a formal policy for the periodic review of unreleased executive session minutes, but it does have a practice of doing so from time to time, according to town officials.
The board last vetted executive session minutes a year ago and those were provided to the Gazette upon request this week. Tonight, the Board of Selectmen will move into executive session to review the newspaper's request for closed-session minutes from the past nine months of 2009, which include eight meetings held last year.
The closed-session meeting minutes in Southampton are among the most informative of those reviewed for this story. They provide detailed accounts of closed-door government deliberations in that town.
"Our goal is to have all these executive session minutes out there," said Regina Shea-Sullivan, administrative assistant to the Town Administrator Diana Schindler and Board of Selectmen.
Amherst
In Amherst, a Gazette request for executive session minutes of the Select Board prompted an executive session to determine whether they could release those minutes. The minutes the newspaper sought covered sessions in February and November of 2009 that were called to discuss the town's strategy in collective bargaining. The minutes were released within a week of the newspaper's request.
Amherst's Select Board, which maintains an impressive archive of town board meeting minutes on its Web site, does not have a policy to periodically review unreleased executive session minutes.
As a result, the documents are not available for review online, as is the case in many other cities and towns.
Earlier this month, the Gazette requested executive session meeting minutes of the School Committee's March 5 emergency closed session, which appears to have been held to discuss matters involving former School Superintendent Alberto Rodriguez. The panel denied releasing those minutes, despite the fact that Rodriguez has permanently left employment with the town and reportedly reached a financial settlement. The newspaper plans to appeal that decision.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.
