Women City Councilors Did Not Violate Open Meeting Law: President

NEWTON, MA — The women on the city council did nothing wrong by meeting outside the Newton City Council to talk about how council members were treating each other, the law department ruled.

Because the complaint sent to the MA Attorney General's office was anonymous there was need for an investigation according to the AG. But after Council President Marc Laredo got the complaint he asked the city law department to take a look just in case, he said, and determine what, if anything, needed to be done.

After the law department interviewed all 11 women who were present at the meeting they determined the complaint to be without merit.

Laredo sent out a memo Thursday explaining the status of the complaint:

At my request, the Law Department looked into the anonymous complaint the City Clerk received on Thursday, June 7, 2018 alleging that the Open Meeting Law was violated when 11 members of the City Council met on May 20, 2018. The Law Department interviewed all members of the City Council who were invited to the meeting and has concluded that the Open Meeting Law was not violated.

But the complaint, though anonymous and public, raised an unexpected question. What were the group of women councilors talking about on May 20? A number of city councilors told Patch they were talking about how to handle decorum on the city council that they were not used to and how to help support Laredo in his effort to maintain an atmosphere of respect in the chamber.

That lead to more questions: What type of decorum issues are we talking about here? Stay tuned for more on that.

Patch will continue to follow this story. Got a tip? Email Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com and follow her on Twitter at @ReporterJenna

In the meantime catch up on the story here:

Open Meeting Law Complaint Against Newton City Councilors

Newton Looks At Complaint, Councilors To Get 'Guidelines'

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File Photo: Jenna Fisher/Patch