Summer education time.

Just in case anyone calls office of selectmen to request to be on agenda of an upcoming meeting and say town administrator refuses your request, you have options to include filing open meeting law complaint (at least make them deal with it and have to explain the reason for complaint).

Preparation of the Agenda

The agenda of a selectmen’s meeting had virtually no legal significance prior to a major overhaul of the open meeting law in 2010. Under the previous version of the law, the meeting posting simply had to say when and where the board would convene. Now, the required notice of a meeting must include “a listing of topics that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting”

[G.L. c. 30A, §20(b)]. Note the imposition of personal responsibility: “that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed.”

See, the law gives responsibility and authority to chair of the public body, not town admin, regardless of what selectmen may put in a policy (that they do not usually follow anyways- in my opinion).

Note: selectman handbook - In most towns, the responsibility for preparing the meeting agenda falls to the chair, often with help from professional staff, or to the town manager or other professional staff member. This task includes determining what issues will be up for discussion, what the order of items will be, and what will not appear on the agenda. Again, open meeting law puts agenda responsibility (final) on the chair.

Again, what if a topic comes up within forty-eight hours before the meeting that the chair failed to anticipate? The chair should amend the posted notice as soon as possible, even if it means the topic is posted less than a full forty-eight hours in advance. If feasible, the board may also consider postponing discussion until the next meeting, so there will be no question about the adequacy of notice. (chair is ultimately responsible)