Templeton Board of Selectmen

c/o Carter Terenzini

Town Administrator

160 Patriots Road, P.O. Box 620

East Templeton, MA 01438

By e-mail only: cterenzini@templetonma.gov

RE: Open Meeting Law Complaint

Dear Mr. Terenzini:

This office received a complaint from Robert May on July 1, 2020, alleging that the

Templeton Board of Selectmen (the “Board”) violated the Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A, §§

18-25, as modified by Governor Charles Baker’s March 12 order temporarily suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law. 1 The complaint was originally filed with the Board on June 1, and you responded, on behalf of the Board, by letter dated June 24. 2020 The complaint alleges that the Board violated the Open Meeting Law when it held a meeting on May 27 and did not provide the public with real-time access.

Following our review, we find that the Board violated the Open Meeting Law as alleged.

In reaching this determination, we reviewed the original complaint, the Board’s response to the

complaint, and the request for further review filed with our office. In addition, we reviewed the

notice and open session minutes of the May 27 meeting, as well as a video recording of that

meeting.

1 All dates in this letter refer to the year 2020.

2 We take this opportunity to remind the Board that the Open Meeting Law requires that within 14 business days of receipt of a complaint, a public body must meet to review the complaint’s allegations; take remedial action, if appropriate; send to the complainant a response and a description of any remedial action taken; and send to the Attorney General a copy of the complaint and a description of a any remedial action taken. G.L. c. 30A, § 23(b); 940 CMR 29.05(5).

See OML Declination 8-7-2019 (Pepperell Board of Selectmen). Here, the Board did not respond to the complaint until June 24, although its response was due June 19. We remind the Board of its obligations under the Law.

(working on posting the complaint / response in its entirety)

By GREG VINE

For The Athol Daily News

Published: 8/19/2020 5:31:36 PM

Modified: 8/19/2020 5:31:26 PM

ATHOL — The Fire Department has landed a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which will help pay for a variety of personal protective equipment (PPE) for firefighter/EMTs. The grant totals nearly $16,000.

Guarnera said some of the protective equipment purchased is likely unfamiliar to the general public.

“We have new SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatus) that we got with a grant last year,” he explained, “and there’s an adapter that goes onto the Scott SCBA masks that you can put a cartridge on, and that cartridge helps protect from hazardous materials, it’s good for COVID, it can be good for anything. So, that’s one thing we bought.

“Another is PAPRs (powered air purifying respirators). Again, they work with the Scott masks, but you’re breathing air that’s filtered through cartridges, also. We didn’t have any and were very much in need of those for both hazardous materials and biological and viral/bacteriological problems, which would be COVID-related.”

Guarnera said he was also able to use the grant to purchase 1,600 N95 masks.

“I was also able to get half-face pieces,” he added, “so that a firefighter doesn’t have to wear a whole SCBA mask; they can use the half-face piece with the filter, also. It’s a lot lighter on their faces, both for hazardous materials and something like COVID.”

Finally, said the chief, he was able to use some of the funds toward the purchase of an electrostatic sprayer “so we can decontaminate the ambulance in the station.”

Guarnera said the grant was critical to securing the items for his team.

“This is equipment we did need, and we did not have the money to buy it,” he said.

While some of the PPE is disposable, some is not.

“The face masks are for always — you just have to decontaminate them. The filters are for one-time use. But I did order 200 of the filters that go on the mask and another two- or 300 that go on the face piece. And those are predominantly for hazardous materials, but can be used for COVID as need be. So, if indeed we run out of the masks that we have — the N95s — we can use these masks, also.

“But hazardous materials is a big issue with this town, as far as having the trains coming through here, and having Route 2 with trucking moving up and down the highway. It’s definitely a problem.”

Guarnera explained that the FEMA AFG-S (Assistance to Firefighters Grant – Supplemental) is among the most competitive grants of its kind. Applications are open to every fire department in the United States and its territories.

“So,” Guarnera concluded, “with this grant, we were able to kind of kill two bird with one stone — both the COVID side and the hazmat side.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com

By GREG VINE

For The Athol Daily News

Published: 8/18/2020 5:38:34 PM

Modified: 8/18/2020 5:38:27 PM

PHILLIPSTON — The Selectboard and Finance Committee last week voted their recommendations for each of the eight articles that will appear on the warrant for the upcoming special town meeting. Most of the articles dealing with routine town business were recommended for passage with little or no discussion. Such was not the case, however, regarding several related to the town’s relationship with the Narragansett Regional School District.

Most discussion, and a fair amount of disagreement, was generated by Article 1, which calls for the town to fund a portion of the FY21 school district budget.

At the annual town meeting in June, residents voted to fund the district to the tune of $1 million — well short of the $650,000 recommended by the district’s school committee, and more than $200,000 shy of the amount the state has set as Phillipston’s minimum contribution.

“I’m going to recommend the original number of $1,646,239,” said Selectboard member Kim Pratt. “That’s the requested number now — that’s been certified — and at the Special Town Meeting, as we’ve done before, it can be discussed and changed, if so desired.”

Pratt then made a motion to recommend the article with the amount she suggested, but the motion didn’t go far.

“I don’t agree with that, so I’m not going to second it,” said fellow board member Gerhard Fandreyer. “I think we should stick with the $1 million figure and let them change it on the town meeting floor.”

“I think that’s irresponsible, Gerhard,” Pratt responded. “We know that’s not even the (state mandated) minimum contribution. There’s been a one-twelfth budget set that we know we have to pay ...”

“There’s nothing in Chapter 70 or 71 that says we have to pay that minimum amount,” Fandreyer said, cutting Pratt off mid-sentence. “It only says we have to go to a Special Town Meeting if we don’t agree. There’s nothing in there that says each town has to have that minimum amount. So, until you find it and show me exactly where it says that, I’m not going to agree to that.”

“I know the Commissioner of Education has set the one-twelfth budget,” Pratt said, when getting the opportunity to continue, “and I believe that is what we are going to have to pay until Dec. 1, at which time — if we haven’t set a budget — the commissioner will set a budget.”

Pratt then said she stood by her motion, with Fandreyer insisting he would not provide a second.

Fandreyer then motioned that the board should approve the inclusion of the article on the warrant, minus any hard figures for the voters to consider until the article is offered up for consideration on the floor of the town meeting. The motion passed 2-1, with board Chair John Telepciak voting in favor and Pratt opposed.

Then came the Finance Committee’s turn to consider the article.

“Alright, guys,” said FinCom Chair Tom Specht, “what’s your pleasure? How about a motion that we recommend the article; and let’s try with a sum of money.”

Committee member Ruth French moved to recommend the article, including the figure of $1,646,239.”

Specht explained that the article will appear on the warrant as recommended by the Selectboard; minus any dollar amount. Below the article summary, however, voters will see that the FinCom recommends passage with the amount sought by the School Committee.

The committee ultimately voted 4-1 to approve French’s motion.

Both boards voted, each unanimously, to make no recommendation regarding two other articles, placed on the warrant by citizen petition or request.

Article 2 is a non-binding resolution which, if passed, instructs the Selectboard to move — as soon as possible — to pull the town of Phillipston out of the Narragansett Regional School Distict. Templeton and Phillipston formed the district in 1955.

Article 6 asks residents to take a vote of no confidence in the NRSD School Committee.

Each committee also voted unanimously against placing an article on the warrant which would have reduced the salary of the Town Treasurer.

The final four articles of the seven that made it onto the warrant are considered general “housekeeping” matters.

The Special Town Meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Aug. 28 at Phillipston Memorial Elementary School.

DANIEL MONAHAN | dmonahan@sentinelandenterprise.com | Sentinel & Enterprise

PUBLISHED: August 14, 2020 at 6:20 a.m. | UPDATED: August 14, 2020 at 6:52 a.m.

FITCHBURG — The Fire Department has been awarded a federal grant totaling $387,709 to purchase new equipment for firefighters.

On Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it was awarding $42.3 million in grants to 290 fire departments nationwide through its Assistance to Firefighters Grant program.

The federal grants provide funds for expenses such as the equipment, apparatus, training and salaries necessary to protect and serve communities.

The money Fitchburg received will be used to purchase 54 self-contained breathing apparatuses, which are used by firefighters to breathe safely during fire rescues.

A breathing apparatus includes a full face mask, regulator, air cylinder, cylinder pressure gauge, remote pressure gauge, and an integrated PASS device which helps locate downed personnel.

Fire Chief Anthony Marrama said the much-needed upgrades will protect firefighters as they work to save lives.

“Our equipment is currently about 15 years old,” Marrama said. “This equipment is of critical importance. We simply could not do what we’ve been trained to do without it.”

Marrama said the air cylinders currently used by the department are set to expire next year and this grant will help replace them.

“This grant is actually going to save the city quite a bit of money,” he said.

If one goes to the Templeton Town website at Templetonma.gov and click on town contracts and agreements, you can find the animal control agreement with Winchendon, MA. You will see it expired June 30, 2020. I inquired with the Templeton Town Administrator; his response was "Police Chief (and I’m not quite sure he had the authority so am checking) signed a one-year ACO"

Also, on the ethics liaison front, time flies; after the June 22, 2020 election, there is a 30 day time frame to submit paperwork that you have taken ethics test and have signed form, stating you have copy open meeting law, understand it, etc. and every two years, you are required to do it again. That is the responsibility of ethics liaison. I goofed and did not submit within time period. I caught it, did those things and brought it to town hall. That is an important requirement and task, to ensure all who are suppose to do it, actually follow through. The Town Administrator was appointed ethics liaison, so that seems to be another task not complete.

One reason for where we are with police issues:

Telegram & Gazette - August 4, 2020.

WORCESTER – A former city man accused of assaulting a police officer last year during a melee at the Beer Garden is suing the Police Department after obtaining a video that contradicts the police report the officer filed in court.

Prosecutors dismissed all charges after reviewing the video, which captured a materially different version of events than the one K-9 Officer Shawn Tivnan swore to in his report.

“If the video hadn’t existed, it would have been their word against mine,” 24-year-old Christopher Ayala-Melendez said Tuesday. “It would have changed my life.”

Ayala-Melendez was arrested outside the Beer Garden at 64 Franklin St. on Oct. 26, the night a large fight led police to make the rare ask that all hands on deck report to a call.

Tivnan alleged that the man – who, according to the lawsuit, lived at an apartment at 60 Franklin St., and was trying to get home – assaulted him. The video tells a different story.

“This case shows how easy it is to become ensnared in the criminal justice system,” said Hector E. Pineiro, the man’s lawyer.

According to the official report Tivnan filed in Central Court, the 11-year officer was standing next to another police officer with his police dog when a man later identified as Ayala-Melendez “pushed past officers” and was yelling toward arrestees.

The man refused lawful orders to leave, Tivnan alleged, offering a detailed description of a confrontation in which he alleged Ayala-Melendez “broke free” from his grasp, “came at” him and his dog “aggressively” and “assaulted” the officer.

Tivnan alleged he had to deliver a “palm heel strike” to gain control, at which time the dog bit Ayala-Melendez, who, despite being bitten, “refused” commands to go the ground, and had to be converged upon by officers.

One of those officers, Brett J. Kubiak, partially corroborated Tivnan’s report, writing that Ayala-Melendez “refused” commands to lay down and “continued to swing his body violently” while being bitten by the dog.

Both officers would have been asked to testify to such in court, it appears, had Ayala-Melendez not dug up video himself that shows a vastly different story.

“I was just trying to go home,” Ayala-Melendez, a foreman for a moving company who said he’d never been arrested before, told the Telegram & Gazette on Tuesday.

Ayala-Melendez told the T&G, and the video confirms, that he was not pushing past or yelling at officers when he walked up to an officer and pointed in the direction of his apartment building.

Ayala-Melendez said he pointed at the building because he and his girlfriend, who can be seen next to him in the video, had been out for a walk, and were trying to ask whether they could go home.

Ayala-Melendez told the T&G that no one gave him any orders or accused him of doing anything wrong. He said that shortly after asking about his building, he was tugged to the left by Tivnan, at which point, he said, his memory is a blur.

The video shows Tivnan grabbing Ayala-Melendez almost immediately after he pointed to his building, at which point the dog bites the man, who stammers and is quickly taken to the ground by police.

The video shows the man’s girlfriend walking toward him after he is bitten, at which time a police officer pushes her to the ground.

Ayala-Melendez said he sat in a jail cell for more than an hour before being booked, wondering what was going to happen to him. He was not taken immediately to the hospital – which his lawyer said violates Police Department policy – and a booking tape shows him alleging excessive force while being processed.

Ayala-Melendez said he went to the security desk at his 60 Franklin St. apartment building the day after being released, and he and staff there were able to find the video that depicts what occurred.

Ayala-Melendez said he was “outraged” when he read the officer’s version of events. His defense lawyer gave the video to prosecutors for District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., who, on June 16, asked a judge to dismiss the charges, citing “a review of the currently available evidence in this case, including police reports and video surveillance tapes.”

Early declined to comment on the case through a spokeswoman Tuesday, noting the case is “before the court in civil litigation.”

The case has been filed in federal court in Boston.

Police also declined to comment, citing the litigation. They confirmed that Tivnan is still a K-9 officer.

Early’s spokeswoman declined to say whether Early had placed Tivnan’s name on any list of officers found to have credibility concerns.

Such lists, known as Brady or Giglio lists, are under scrutiny in the wake of calls for police accountability following the death of George Floyd. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan released her list recently after a public records request.

Early’s office Tuesday declined to say whether he maintains such a list.

Ayala-Melendez’s lawsuit alleges seven counts, including excessive force, malicious prosecution and violation of his civil rights. It alleges the conduct occurred as a result of a culture of impunity in which officers knew they would not be punished for misconduct.

Ayala-Melendez’s lawyer, Pineiro, says the episode is a case in point for why body cameras should be worn by police officers. He has frequently accused police of fabricating accounts, including in a voluminous 2018 complaint to Early.

The T&G is suing the city of Worcester for records relating to that complaint. The city has argued they should not be released - noting some correlate to civil lawsuits Pineiro filed - and has criticized the T&G in court documents as requesting them under the “guise” of watchdog journalism.

City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr., who has declined to speak publicly about the T&G lawsuit, said through a spokesman Tuesday that he was not aware of the Ayala-Melendez case.

Ayala-Melendez, who said he sped up a move to Chelsea in the wake of his arrest, has had trouble sleeping, had nightmares and been afraid of police officers and dogs since his arrest, his lawsuit says.

Ayala-Melendez told the T&G it was difficult to see his name sullied in online commentary after the charges were announced, saying he was lumped in with others directly involved in the fight.

“People were making me out to be a villain who attacked a dog and an officer,” said Ayala-Melendez, adding that even his own parents did not fully believe he had done nothing wrong until they saw the video.

“You always hear the comment made saying, ‘Police are not going to arrest you if you are not doing anything (wrong),’” he said. “But in this case, that’s what happened.”

Pineiro said he believes police internal investigators are looking into the arrest, but that based on past experiences with the department, he is not confident a full inquiry will be conducted.

Pineiro alleged in the lawsuit that officers being investigated are often allowed to submit written statements rather than be questioned in person, while those who make the complaints are “subject to adversarial interrogation” by WPD officers.

Pineiro said many complainants have criminal charges pending against them, and elect not to speak to investigators, which he said often results in officers being cleared of wrongdoing.

Ayala-Melendez said an internal affairs investigator called him a couple months after his arrest, but that with his criminal case still open, he referred the officer to his lawyer.

“I really didn’t want anything to do with the Police Department after (what happened),” Ayala-Melendez said, adding that he does not know whether police ended up speaking to his criminal lawyer.

That lawyer, James J. Gribouski, did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

Pineiro alleged multiple Police Department policies were violated in the case with respect to the use of the dog. He said the department lists use of a K-9 dog as a higher use of force than anything other than a firearm in its K-9 policy, and he wrote in the lawsuit that Tivan’s actions might be viewed very differently had a more conventional weapon been used.

“If Officer Tivnan instead of deploying K-9 Mattis had opted to use any type of knife or sharp instrument to cut or slash Ayala Melendez in manner similar to the injury K-9 Mattis caused, such conduct would amount to the crime of aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon,” he wrote.

By Stephen Landry / slandry@thegardnernews.com

GARDNER — The Gardner Fire Department has received more than $240,000 in federal grant funding to purchase new breathing equipment.

The funding, which was announced by U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan on Aug. 5, was awarded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s fiscal 2019 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program.

Fire Chief Richard Ares said the last time his department had purchased critical equipment of this type was in 2007, when it did not have enough funding to buy the apparatus for each firefighter in the station.

“As a result, half of our officers have one brand of equipment and the other half have a different brand,” Ares said. “If any of our firefighters ever have an emergency with their units, they should be thinking about how to quickly protect themselves, not having to worry about which brand of equipment they put on while rushing out the door. This grant allows us to ensure that we are protecting the safety of our employees and helps keep them safe when they run into these dangerous situations.”

Mayor Michael Nicholson applauded the announcement of the grant, saying that the city’s first responders have been going above and beyond in their duties — particularly during the current pandemic — and deserve to have the equipment they need to keep them safe.

“This type of equipment usually has a lifespan of 10 years, and we are well over that on our current equipment,” Nicholson said. “This type of equipment is necessary to keep our firefighters safe, and I’m proud to see us be able to update our existing inventory.”

Capt. Craig Osowski said that self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) technology has become much more advanced in the years since the department last purchased the equipment.

“These are the biggest life-saving tools we have, aside from our radios,” Osowski said, adding that because every member of the department will soon have the same brand of air tank on their backs, both their response time and safety will be vastly improved. “Currently, we have different brands right now, so you have to keep in mind that each one operates a little differently, but now there will be no more wondering which pack do I have on today — these new packs are state of the art.”

Today’s SCBAs, which cost more than $6,000 each, contain Bluetooth technology, voice amplifiers and thermal-imaging cameras, according to Osowski.

“Everything is wireless and built into these packs,” he said.

Officials said the department expects to receive the new equipment within the next five or six weeks.

Since 2001, the AFG program has helped firefighters and other first responders obtain critical equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training and other resources necessary for protecting the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards.

“There’s no question that the Gardner firefighters who show up to work each day and go above and beyond the call of duty are local heroes,” Trahan said. “They and their loved ones deserve to know that when they show up to work each day, they’ll have the equipment they need to do their jobs as safely as possible and return home after each shift. This federal investment will help deliver that assurance, and I’m happy to help deliver these funds to the department.