Massachusetts Open Meeting Law Continue Hearing

October 12, 2022 Post a Comment

The Open Meeting Law (MGL 39, Sec 23B) requires that all government meetings shall be open to the public. Back in 2010 the Open Meeting Law was revised to include a number of changes; some rather significant.

The Attorney General is the enforcement agency regarding any and all violations to the law.

Agendas

It is necessary for your Board, Commission, and Committee to submit your agenda as part of the posting of your meeting. Please note that Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays will be excluded from the 72 hour notice period. For example, if you wish to post a meeting for Monday evening, your meeting notice/agenda must be posted with the Town Clerk's Office no later than Wednesday. Please send all meeting notices to posting@townofmaynard.net. Posted notices will be date stamped during the Town Clerk's Office regular business hours:

Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday – 8:00 am – 3:30 pm
Tuesday – 8:00 am – 6:30 pm
Friday – 8:00 am- 11:30 am

After work hours notices will be date stamped the next business day. Please keep this in mind while following the 48-hour meeting posting rule.

Except in an emergency, public bodies shall file meeting notices sufficiently in advance of a public meeting to permit posting of the notice at least 48-hours in advance of the public meeting, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, legal holidays or if Town Administrators closes Town Hall (snow etc.), in accordance with M.G.L. c. 30A, § 20. In an emergency, the notice shall be posted as soon as reasonably possible prior to such meeting. Please email meeting and agenda notices to posting@townofmaynard.net which will also reserve your meeting room.

Meeting notices shall contain the date, time and place of such meeting and a listing of topics that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting. The list of topics shall have sufficient specificity to reasonably advise the public of the issues to be discussed at the meeting. The date and time that the notice is posted shall be conspicuously recorded thereon or therewith. (See details below)

Except in cases of emergency, do not meet on holidays, election days or during town meetings.

Below is a guide in order to aid you with the timing of your submittals:

Monday night meetings must be posted before Wednesday night.
Tuesday night meetings must be posted before Thursday noon (if Monday is a holiday, before Wednesday night).
Wednesday night meetings must be posted before Friday before noon.
Thursday night meetings must be posted before Monday night.
Friday night meetings must be posted before Tuesday night.

In addition, please keep in mind that even though you may have emailed your agenda on a specific day and time, until the Town Clerk's Office date and time stamps the agenda it is not official. A way to ensure that your agenda has been officially posted; you will now receive notification that the agenda has been posted and your date and time stamped copy of the agenda will be emailed back to you for your records. This date and time stamped copy will also appear on the Town's website. Please only submit your agenda to posting@townofmaynard.net

Note: In the past, you were able to submit a posting which includes your meeting schedule for the entire year. However, with the changes in law, this is no longer acceptable. If you choose to post a "2021 Meeting Schedule" listing of all the possible meeting dates on your particular website page, each individual meeting will not be posted.

Your agenda must include the following information:

Location of the meeting – Name of Building
Name of the room or room #
Complete Address
Date of the Meeting
Time of the Meeting
Agenda – the list of topics that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed
Signed by the Chair or Representative

Click here to download a sample for you to follow when developing your meeting notice/agenda. (This sample is in Microsoft Word format).

One of the requirements under the Open Meeting Law is the need for specificity. Your meeting notice/agenda shall include a list of topics the Chair anticipates will be discussed at the meeting. As you can see from the sample Select Board's agenda, the items reflected on the Select Board's agenda fulfills these requirements. However, please understand that should an item come up within the 72 hours, and it requires immediate attention by your Board, Commission, or Committee, a simple roll call vote to add the item to the agenda will be acceptable. But, if the item came up prior to the 48 hours, a new agenda would have to be submitted to the Town Clerk's Office. If an agenda is revised, it MUST state "REVISED AGENDA" on the new agenda. Once this has been received in the Town Clerk's Office it will be date and time stamped, emailed back to you for your records and posted on the website. Click here to view a sample revised agenda.

Please be advised that moving forward no Town Seals will be acceptable on any agendas, they are not ADA compliant.

Also please be aware that if your Board, Committee or Commission plans to schedule a Public Hearing, the Public Hearing Notice and the agenda must be filed at the same time, it is a check and balance to make sure we are all on the same page.

And, if a time is indicated on the agenda then that hearing may not begin until such time. That Public Hearing may NOT begin prior to that indicated time.

If your Board, Committee or Commission plans to hold a Joint Meeting with other Boards, Committees, or Commissions, all MUST post an agenda. And, each Board, Committee, or Commission must maintain their own set of minutes.

When developing your meeting notice/agenda for an upcoming meeting, items to be addressed in Executive Session shall be specifically identified on your agenda without compromising the purpose for which the Executive Session is called. A roll call vote of each member of your board must be taken prior to entering into Executive Session. The Chair shall also publicly announce whether open session will reconvene after the Executive Session has concluded, all of which must be stated on the agenda.

If by chance your meeting has to be cancelled, the original agenda must be emailed back stating on the agenda, "THIS MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED". Once this has been received in the Town Clerk's Office it will be date and time stamped, emailed back to you for your records and posted on the website. Click here to view a sample cancelled agenda.

The Town Clerk also requests that every Board, Committee and Commission submit a "Charge" as to what specific responsibilities are of their certain Board, Committee or Commission in Town. The residents of Maynard, whether interested in serving as a member or just concerned with the actual "charge", should have this information readily available. That being said, the Town Clerk's Office is respectfully requesting that the Chairs of all Boards, Committees, and Commissions work with their members to submit in writing the "charge" of their Board.

Minutes

First and foremost, you are required to keep minutes for all meetings. Your minutes must include name of Board, location, date, time, members present and members absent. Additionally, your minutes must retain all documents, photographs, recordings, maps, etc. It will not be necessary to submit these documents to the Town Clerk, however, a list of documents and other exhibits used at the meeting must be included, along with the decisions made and actions taken for each agenda item. A roll-call vote must be taken for each item voted in executive session and said vote is to be entered into the minutes. Also, upon request, minutes from your open meeting must be made available within ten days. The minutes may be either in "approved" or "draft" format. The official minutes must be made available within a reasonable amount of time. The Open Meeting Law considers two to four weeks a reasonable amount of time.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Town Clerk's Office at 978-897-1300.

Holiday / Elections Schedule

For your convenience, the upcoming elections, meetings and holidays for 2021 are as follows:

2022

Jan 1 – New Year's Day
Jan 17 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Feb 21 – President's Day
Apr 18 – Patriot's Day
May 3 – Annual Town Election
May 16 – Annual Town Meeting
May 30 – Memorial Day
Jun 20 – Juneteenth (19th, observed)
Jul 4 – Independence Day
Sept 5 – Labor Day
Sep TBD – State Primary
Oct TBD – Special Town Meeting
Oct 10 – Indigenous Peoples Day
Nov 11 – Veterans Day
Nov 24&25 – Thanksgiving
Dec 26 – Christmas Day (25th, observed)

Reserving Seating Areas

All Town Hall Conference Rooms have monitors and networked PCs to access the internet or project power points, etc., Easels are available. If technical assistance is needed, indicate at time of reservation. All spaces are ADA accessible. Smaller rooms are fixed setup. Various setup arrangements are possible for the two largest spaces. 48 hour advanced notice needed for setup arrangements.

Please reserve your room before emailing meeting and agenda to posting@townofmaynard.net to ensure room availability and accurate notice information. It is the responsibility of the board/committee Chair or designated member to reserve a meeting room. Please do not include others on the posting email. Inform fellow board/committee members in a separate email of the meeting.

BUILDING	ROOM	CAPACITY	TO RESERVE/NOTES
Town Hall	OMS Meeting Room	8	Zoe Piel 978-897-1302 White board equipped.
Town Hall	Gianotis (Select Board Meeting Room)	85	Greg Johnson 978-897-1351 8 desks, record and cablecast capability from this room. Adjacent kitchen space.
Town Hall	Campbell (Planning Board Meeting Room)	30+	Zoe Piel 978-897-1302 10 seat conference table, podium. Overflow for Gianotis room.
Library	Cullen	10	Library Room Reservation
Library	Roosevelt	100	Library Room Reservation A/V available.
Library	Trustees	40	Library Room Reservation 10 seat conference table.
Golf Course	COA (not available until September)	15-20	Amy Loveless 978-897-1009
Fowler School	Auditorium	700	Joanne Lochiatto 978-897-6700
Fowler School	Cafeteria	450 w/chairs	Joanne Lochiatto 978-897-6700
Fowler School	Library	260	Gail Lucas 978-897-8891
Green Meadow	Cafeteria	530 w/chairs	Kathleen Sullivan 978-897-8246
Police Dept.	Training		Lucy Distephano 978-897-1011

For support related to Public Access or Recording of in-person meeting, please contact WAVM:
Mark Minasian, mminasian@maynard.k12.ma.us, 978-897-5213

For support related to Zoom account access for remote participation (member or invitee or public) please contact:
Janelle Franklin, jfranklin@townofmaynard.net, 978-897-1302

If you need further assistance, please contact the Town Clerk's office at 978-897-1300.

Resources

Massachusetts Open Meeting Law

hopewartn1965.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/gov/open-meetings/

Hope Wartn1965