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Tired of lawsuits over its secret meetings, City Council to look at barring the public from its meetings

By adamg on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 9:11am

The Herald reports that the Boston City Council, which keeps wasting taxpayer money losing court cases over private meetings, will consider asking the state Legislature to exempt it from the state's open-meeting law:

An exemption would mean citizens have no legally guaranteed right to attend council meetings, or even receive meeting minutes.

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Comments

By MadMax on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 9:23am.

Quick, let's get this fixed, before the URL-challenged newspapers call us hypocrites for failing to URL properly.

By adamg on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 9:33am.

I think I need a keyboard where the keys are three inches wide (the URL I entered was actually fine, it was the fact I somehow left off part of the href tag, sigh).

By mediaseth on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 9:51am.

I would expect this to bring the biggest lawsuit on the matter they have ever seen, and ironically, the most public! I think when they "look" into it, they'll be dissuaded.

In related news, the City of Lynn just took a big step forward in finally getting its meetings on Cable. It's the only City in the State that does not have its meetings on cable.

By Dan Farnkoff on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:00am.

If they're ashamed to do the public's work in public view, relieve them of the burden. This is one of the worst proposals I've heard in a very long time. Don't quit the misconduct- make it legal! The state legislature should toss this proposal in the trash bin.

By adamg on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:58am.

Press release just in from Maureen Feeney's office: The council will not be voting today on seeking an Open Meeting Law exemption; would hold a public hearing on barring the public from meetings before it goes to the legislature. Instead, today, the council will discuss the staff report (I've asked if I can get a copy) and solicit independent experts to review the recommendations.

"The council believes strongly in transparency as a practice of good government and we encourage public input and testimony in council proceedings. Public involvement is something we take very seriously as elected officials. It would be impossible to do our job otherwise," said City Council President Maureen E. Feeney. "In reality, few people understand the open meeting law. When colleagues cannot speak to one another in the hallway, it becomes a real challenge to serve the people of this city effectively. Those are the type of challenges that we would like to see clarified. We are not seeking to evade the law or conduct city business in secret and to suggest that is simply crazy."

The council also intends to look at ways to "clarify the relationship" between the council and the mayor, given that councilors feel the already weak council has only gotten weaker in recent years.

Dan Kennedy discusses closed-door government:

... Any journalist, community activist or public watchdog who's spent any time dealing with municipal government will tell you that the open-meeting law ought to be strengthened, especially with regard to punishing violators.

The law is a burden only to public officials who think the public is a burden.

By ShadyMilkMan on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:17am.

I think the law needs to be clarified so that people know what is and what is not included under the open meeting laws.

I think its important to allow discussions to take place between politicians but also feel that if you have 6 people in a hallway discussing something it might as well be a public meeting. It could explain why my local town council always has four or five (there are 11 members) people standing in a circle talking, there always seem to be two groups that switch with each other on occasion. Im not too concerned about it though because its in public, the hallway echos like crazy and half the time the local newspaper reporter is in the middle of it chatting with them too.

By theszak on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:54am.

http://SunshineBoston.blogspot.com

By Ron Newman on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 12:47pm.

Why would the state legislature even consider carving out an exception for just one city?

By theszak on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 3:13pm.

Could any of you nice folks with the capability scan a specimen boston, cambridge, somerville or brookline ballot and post it?... Specimen proof ballots are available from the state elections division or local election divisions by fax.

By Ron Newman on Thu, 09/11/2008 - 1:20pm.

are here. Surprisingly, I can't find any for Cambridge.