A lawsuit says Marlborough's selectmen have violated right-to-know laws
MARLBOROUGH — Two residents have filed a lawsuit against the town’s board of selectmen, claiming town officials violated state right-to-know laws.
Robert Cameron and Loretta Simonds filed the suit in Cheshire County Superior Court on Nov. 23. In their brief, Cameron and Simonds allege that for months, selectmen have been holding nonpublic meetings without proper reasons and sealing the minutes, illegally altering minutes, and withholding public information.
“None of these six months of nonpublic meetings were legal,” Simonds said. “And the sealing of minutes that were nonpublic — that’s not legal. Our town government is trying to conduct business in secret.”
Cameron and Simonds, both longtime Marlborough residents, said they became concerned with the board’s actions last winter, when they felt that the board was using nonpublic meetings to harass Marlborough Police Chief Christopher J. Lyons.
State law says any meeting of selectmen must be announced at least two days before the meeting is held. Simonds claims that in Marlborough, this does not happen.
Simonds alleged that selectmen frequently discuss town business outside of meetings, communicating through emails and at unscheduled meetings.
“I saw them meeting at the cafe in town, and they were discussing town business,” Simonds said. “When I asked if the meeting had been posted, (Selectman) John Northcott replied, ‘Impromptu.’ ”
Simonds and Cameron are also claiming that the selectmen are abusing the ability to hold nonpublic meetings. They believe selectmen are frequently misinterpreting and over-citing the law to hold nonpublic sessions where they discuss business that should be discussed in public.
Simonds also said many of the minutes are inaccurate, when compared with her recordings of meetings, and in some instances, minutes have been altered without discussion at a meeting. Simonds said she started recording meetings over the summer when she began to suspect the board was violating the law.
“The minutes are supposed to be a summary, but no one can trust the accuracy of them anymore — and if we can’t trust that, then what else are they doing that we don’t even know about,” Simonds said.
Selectman John Northcott said the board is looking forward to straightening everything out.
“We feel that there are cases when it is not appropriate and when it is to have public meetings, and we believe we are following the spirit of the law,” he said. “We don’t believe that the case has much validity. We’re going to respond to those charges in court and we’re going to be correct.”
Winchester's Select Board has been sued before for just this type of violations and still they continue to violate the laws with their new policies and closed door sessions .. maybe Winchester residents should follow this suit closely and perhaps file their own.
3 comments:
Oh we will be and hold the selectmen feet to the fire
follow up in the Keene paper Dec 7th
Marlborough selectmen said in court Tuesday they did not violate the state’s right-to-know law, in response to a lawsuit filed by two residents who said they did.
Robert Cameron and Loretta Simonds, longtime Marlborough residents, filed suit against the board on Nov. 23, claiming selectmen have been holding nonpublic meetings without proper reasons and sealing the minutes, illegally altering minutes and withholding public information.
Cameron and Simonds said they became concerned with the board’s actions last winter, when they felt that the board was using nonpublic meetings to harass Marlborough Police Chief Christopher J. Lyons.
“From January to June, the board was having nonpublic meetings with the police chief about once a week,” Simonds said Tuesday during the hearing in Cheshire County Superior Court. She and Cameron, along with a few other residents, were concerned that selectmen were attempting to pressure Lyons into leaving his job, Simonds said.
The town’s attorney, Matthew R. Serge, said that selectmen were discussing matters with the chief that might harm his reputation. For that reason, under the right-to-know law, a nonpublic meeting is allowed, he said.
“The selectmen were considering firing him, and they consulted with me about it as well, because they had problems with his performance and the way he was running the department,” Serge said.
Ultimately, the chief requested to have the weekly meetings in public, and the selectmen decided they couldn’t fire the chief at this time, Serge said.
While their concern stemmed from issues over the police chief, Simonds and Cameron said that once they started following what selectmen were doing, they became concerned that the board was conducting town business in private, and that they were often citing wrong reasons for entering nonpublic meetings.
The selectmen — Chairman Lawrence Robinson, Gina Paight and John Northcott — have been serving on the board together for at least eight years.
Several unannounced meetings over the last year concerned Simonds and Cameron, and made them suspicious of the board’s actions, Simonds said.
In January, the board went to a four-town meeting in Harrisville to discuss the possibility of sharing resources to save money; Paight and Robinson visited Glen Brook Farm unannounced in June, to review the site for a tax abatement; in October, Northcott and Paight met with the police chief to discuss department business.
Simonds also saw the board members having what Northcott called an “impromptu” meeting in a cafe in town last month, where she said they were going over town business.
The right-to-know law states that any meeting, defined as when there is a quorum, must be posted in two places 24 hours before it takes place. None of those meetings were posted, and no minutes were taken or made available to the public, according to town records.
In response to these claims, Serge said that “the selectmen felt these gatherings did not reach the level of a meeting as defined by the right-to-know law.
“The selectmen have done their best to follow the right-to-know law,” Serge said. “Do mistakes get made? Sure. Sometimes the wrong reason for a nonpublic meeting may be cited on the minutes. But the board is not attempting to hide information from the public.”
Both sides have 10 days to file any supporting documents or legal memos with the court. After 10 days, the judge will take the case under consideration and make a ruling.
Simonds and Cameron are asking the court to reprimand the selectmen.
That happens here too and all to often and with other boards here in town as well. We have people on our town boards who have no clue how many times they are breaking the law talking about town business outside of a meeting and others who know and just flaunt the law daring someone to say something about what they are doing. Ignorance and arrogance should be our town motto.
Post a Comment