A brief history of Open Meeting Law complaints in Amherst

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on September 19, 2008

Accusations that Amherst officials have violated the Open Meeting and Conflict of Interest laws have been routine in recent years, with occasional findings that the law has been broken.

Despite the frequency with which complaints are filed, and violations have occurred, Town Meeting in May 2007 refused to adopt a bylaw that would issue fines for violations.

A brief summary of recent complaints and their results follows:

* Last September, Town Meeting member Larry Kelley attempted unsuccessfully to stop a strategic partnership with the University of Massachusetts by filing an Ethics Commission complaint against two Select Board members with ties to the university. This complaint was closed after it was determined that both members who voted in favor of waiving a fee for effluent water assessed to UMass, Alisa Brewer and Rob Kusner, had filed the proper disclosures with the town clerk's office.

* Select Board members were found in violation of the Open Meeting Law in August 2007 when a quorum of the board attended a meeting of a Planning Board subcommittee and the Town Commercial Relations Committee without having posted it 48 hours in advance. Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Pepyne determined that the Select Board had improperly deliberated because two of the members spoke while a third was in the audience. "Attendance and deliberation by a quorum of the Select Board at a meeting on subjects over which the Select Board has jurisdiction violate the Open Meeting Law," Pepyne wrote.

* In April 2007, School Committee Chairwoman Elaine Brighty was accused of violating the Open Meeting Law by providing information to the Select Board about a candidate for appointment to the committee. Brighty was found not to be in violation of the law because she was not a member of the Select Board.

* When Town Manager Larry Shaffer appointed an interim town counsel in December 2006, he was alleged to have violated the Open Meeting Law. The district attorney's office ruled that the law only applied to governmental bodies, not individuals.

* A violation of the Open Meeting Law occurred in September 2006, when the district attorney's office ruled Select Board members had an improper email exchange while discussing issues surrounding the Amherst Survival Center. In that case, the investigation, made at the request of the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Amherst Bulletin, was prompted by an email from then member Anne Awad to the entire board and three emails between Awad and Hwei-Ling Greeney. These violated "the spirit of the Open Meeting Law, as it engaged two members of the board in substantive discussion outside the public eye," Pepyne wrote.

* In July 2005, Pepyne determined that the board violated the Open Meeting Law when one member sent an email circulated to the rest of the members raising questions about the Fourth of July parade. The board was advised to review the law.