Ex-Selectmen File Open Meeting Law Complaint Against New Board

STOUGHTON, MA — Two former selectmen who were ousted in December’s recall election are now accusing the board they once sat on of violating the Open Meeting Law.

In similar complaints, ex-board members David Sousa and Peter Brown allege that the Open Meeting Law was violated when two agendas for the board’s Dec. 11 meeting was posted the morning of Dec. 8, inside the deadline of two workdays. According to the complaint, the original agenda was posted Dec. 7 at 7:08 p.m. The next morning, two amended agendas were posted at 9:22 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

Brown cited page 8 of the Open Meeting Law Guide which states that meeting notices must be filed with the clerk’s office with enough time to permit posting of the notice at least 48 hours in advance of the public meeting.

“Clearly this was not the practice given that there have been three agendas posted, the last one posted just one business day before the actual meeting,” Brown wrote in his complaint.

Sousa’s complaint made allegations similar to Brown, also noting that the agenda was not posted online until after the evening of Dec. 9.

In their response, the current selectmen denied that any violations took place. Going over the proposed response at Tuesday’s night board meeting, Chairman Robert O’Reagan said he gave preliminary approval to an agenda the morning of Dec. 7 and final approval later that afternoon and asked for the agenda to be posted immediately. Later that night, O’Reagan said he was informed by then-Interim Town Manager Steve Anastos that he posted an agenda prepared by the former board and then-town head. At this point, O’Reagan said he suggested that both agendas be merged into one.

What was posted that night was an agenda not approved by current board members, but by former members, O’Reagan said.

A second agenda was posted the following morning. A third agenda was submitted by Selectman Michael Sullivan and added a time-sensitive request by the Town’s finance team to sell bonds to the slate of topics.

“We don’t believe there was a violation of the Open Meeting Law and even if there was, it was remedied on or before Dec. 11,” O’Reagan said.

The board's written response goes on to state that their agenda would have been submitted before Thursday night, if not for "impermissible interference."

Items on the previous agendas that were not addressed at the Dec. 11 meeting were later taken up at the Dec. 14 meeting, according to the board.

Selectman Rick Hill said he was at Town Hall getting sworn in as the town clerk was waiting to discuss which agenda to post.

“The town clerk, town counsel, all agree that we’ve taken the right steps and before this complaint was lodged, another meeting took place and this was reconciled anyways,” Hill said.

Filing Open Meeting Law complains have become a fairly regular occurance in Stoughton. In the past two years, over a dozen complaints were filed against boards in Stoughton, although many were against the school committee and filed by former committee member Joaquin Soares while he was on the committee.

Image: File Photo