Complaint alleges Grafton CPC violated Open Meeting Law

A member of the Community Preservation Committee has taken the unusual step of filing an Open Meeting Law complaint against his own committee.

Justin Wood, the Planning Board’s representative on the CPC, alleges in his complaint that the board violated Open Meeting Law when five members of the committee — a quorum — attended and spoke at the March 15 Select Board meeting.

“Once the CPC-relevant agenda item came up, the Select Board’s vice chair (acting chair for this meeting) Colleen Roy, multiple times during the discussion called out the fact that the CPC members should not speak on the subject due to their quorum and no meeting had been posted,” Wood wrote in the complaint, filed with both the Town Clerk and the state Attorney General’s office. “This comment did not deter members from speaking, repeatedly.”

CPC Chair Jim Gallagher and members Paul Scarlett, Brook Padgett, Kenneth Holberger, and Richard Whitney attended the meeting, with all speaking with the exception of Holberger. The Select Board was discussing whether the CPC should include a member of the Affordable Housing Trust, given that funding housing is part of the CPC’s charge.

The CPC, during its March 24 meeting discussed an email from Town Administrator Evan Brassard about the apparent violation.

“The resulting comments were mostly of disbelief that Discussing actions that the CPC has purview over, in a quorum, to the Select Board chair is considered deliberation,” Wood wrote.

Padgett, a former selectman, said he spoke with an unnamed person in the Attorney General’s office who said “Please don’t let him file a complaint,” referring to Brassard.

While Wood encouraged members of the CPC to self-report the alleged violation, the board voted against it, 6-3, with only Wood, Whitney, and Chair John Stephens supporting.

Wood wrote that the entire CPC membership “should be mandated to take part in an in-person OML training session, and “the affected members should be required to write an open letter to the citizens of the town expressing both an understanding that they broke the OML and a sincere apology with a promise to not break OML again.”

Gallagher, in response to the complaint, wrote “The Grafton Select Board had an agenda item concerning the CPC membership. The CPC had not been advised of this item. Three of us went to the meeting to observe the action item. As it turned out, another member of the CPC who was a candidate for Select board was there to audit the meeting. During the CPC discussion, another member came into the hearing hall. I did not notice the 5th member (a quorum now existed) until it was too late a violation had already taken place.”

Gallagher wrote “in the future, I need to be better at auditing the members of my committee attending a meeting of another committee.”

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