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Select Board member Jim Zisson kept returning to one question Wednesday: What, legally, was the daytime session that Select Board Chair Dan Fox and other town officials held during the week of Oct. 19? A working group? A subcommittee? An executive session?
Zisson noted that the session involved members of elected boards and that the town had not traditionally operated this way. Fox answered that it was no different from any chair meeting with staff to draft a presentation. He compared it to preparing an override pitch for Town Meeting and said every number discussed was already public. The exchange included interruptions and at least one “please let me speak.”
The Select Board then voted unanimously to authorize town counsel to evaluate an Open Meeting Law complaint over the session and send a formal written response to the complainant and the Attorney General, as state procedure requires within 14 business days. Members acknowledged the response will incur legal fees.
Parallel records, open meeting law requests
John DiPiano, who worked on Better Way Marblehead’s campaign against the $15 million operating override voters approved June 9, filed the complaint Oct. 20 with the Select Board and the town clerk. It names Fox, Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer, School Committee member Kate Schmeckpeper, Superintendent John Robidoux and Molly Teets of the Finance Committee, and places a closed session on or about Oct. 19.
DiPiano asks that each board acknowledge a violation, that the officials take Open Meeting Law training at their own expense and that Fox and Schmeckpeper be voted out as chairs.
Fox described the session as assembling the town’s first quarterly financial report. A memorandum of understanding dated April 7, approved by the Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee, says the town administrator and superintendent will report at least quarterly to the three board chairs on the town’s fiscal position. It does not say whether those reports must be public. A footnote acknowledges that current boards cannot bind their successors.
Formatting PowerPoints
Fox said officials were “formatting a PowerPoint presentation,” that no votes or policy decisions were made and that the figures were already on the town’s Marblehead Open Finance portal.
Resident Allen Waller filed a public records request dated Oct. 22 for all communications, including texts, emails and phone calls, among Kezer, Fox, Schmeckpeper, Teets and Robidoux from Oct. 12 to 26. Waller told the Independent he sees the request as pressure for transparency, not an accusation of wrongdoing. He said he spent $3,000 suing the town unsuccessfully three years ago over a records dispute.
Counsel’s response is due within 14 business days, and the Attorney General’s Division of Open Government makes the call on whether the law was broken. Finalist interviews for Kezer’s successor are scheduled for Nov. 4. In January, the memorandum requires the State of the Town address to include override reporting.
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