Open Meeting Law Complaint Against Newton City Councilors: AG

NEWTON, MA — Someone anonymously filed a complaint against several members of the Newton City Council for allegedly meeting in private to discuss current business, according to the Attorney General's office. But several city councilors say that's not what happened.

The office, which does not investigate anonymous complaints, provided a copy of the complaint.

In the complaint, somebody accuses City Councilor Brenda Noel of holding a meeting where all of the council members who are women were invited. But according to a number of councilors who were at the gathering, no one talked about city council business at Noel's home that night.

"The purpose of the get together was just to speak about the appropriateness of the way women were being treated [in the Chamber]," said Councilor Maria Scibelli Greenberg. "We didn't know what the protocol was there. We wanted to get together with the experienced councilors and ask them how we could handle it in the future."

She described the event as social gathering to vent and commiserate. "I guess you could characterize it as a mini support group session for the new councilors," she told Patch.

This conversation comes as the city council is exactly half men and half women for the first time and many of them are new to the council. It also comes a time when women and men across the country are reexamining their interaction in an era of #MeToo.

"I think folks should know that, especially since the Me Too movement we're just hyper aware of how we're being treated," she said in a phone interview.

Other city council members present told Patch confirmed that decorum was the topic of discussion and that Noel - who declined to comment herself - had checked with the city clerk before hosting the event.

City Clerk David Olson told Patch that Noel asked him if some of the female Councilors could get together at her house. Olson told Patch he said he advised that as long as they were not talking about anything that was before the Council, it should not be a problem.

However the complaint insinuates there may have been things discussed in violation of open meeting law on May 20. The following day a city council meeting was slated to start Capital Improvement Plan deliberations, wherein there was a vote on an affordable housing project proposal. The complaint alleges that some members of the council filed a resolution to amend that and remove the project. And on Thursday, May 24, the city council voted to remove the project from the plan 12-10. Ten of the 12 city councilors voted as a block to remove the project, according to the complaint.

Each year city councilors are trained specifically in how Open Meeting Law works and must take tests to keep up to speed with the law that has the aim of ensuring government action and the decision making process transparent to citizens. City Councilors are not permitted to meet in private to discuss official business except for a couple very specific reasons, and even still they have to announce the planned meeting ahead of time.

"People are concerned about transparency in open government," former councilor Amy Sangiolo told Patch. "A complaint like this is pretty serious. Whether any of this happened, I don't know."

Sangiolo heard a rumor that such a complaint was filed, and figured she'd go directly to the AG's office to see if it was true. The AG confirmed that this morning, she said.

The state’s Open Meeting Law requires that committee meetings be posted 48 hours in advance, but makes an exception for emergencies. It also requires that clear minutes be taken during executive sessions and that the minutes be made public once the issue has been resolved.

City Solicitor Ouida Young did not immediately respond to voice mail or emailed request for comments.When she does we will update this article.

It's unclear if the city council will address this, simply because the Attorney General does not investigate anonymous complaints, and according to the law, the City Council may not have to, either.

According to Open Meeting Law regulations: “All complaints shall be in writing, using the form approved by the Attorney General and available on the Attorney General's website. A public body need not, and the Attorney General will not, investigate or address anonymous complaints. A public body need not address a complaint that is not signed by the complainant. A public body need not address a complaint that is not filed using the Attorney General's complaint form.” 940 CMR 29.05(1).

Sign up for the free newsletter and get more breaking Newton news and news alerts like this direct to your inbox. Did we mention it was free?

Got something to add?
Sign up to post to Patch and tell your neighbors what's going on in town. Post anything from calendar events to a column about a need in your neighborhood to a public meeting folks should know about. Our philosophy is the more neighborhood watchers the better.

File Photo: Jenna Fisher/Patch