Council's
executive session raises ire
By Elizabeth Prata
Gray--A planned executive session by the Gray Town
Council has raised the ire of two of the former members
of the preceding Council. In September Chair Gary
Foster called for an executive session for September
29, to which the remaining members of the Council
attended, but not the Manager.
.
Maine law states that the public's business must be
conducted in public. There are several exceptions,
however, and those exceptions are carefully delineated
in the statutes. For example, discussion or consideration
by a school board of suspension or expulsion of a
public school student is allowed to be held in private,
or executive session. Discussion or consideration
of the condition, acquisition or the use of real or
personal property may be held in private session,
but only if premature disclosures of the information
would prejudice the competitive or bargaining position
of the body or agency. Both the Towns of Gray and
New Gloucester are currently engaged in negotiating
for separate parcels in their respective towns. The
Gray Council is negotiating for land on Libby Hill
with Mr. Hancock. These discussions have been ongoing,
and each time they have been held in private session.
Other permitted deliberations include "discussion
or consideration of the employment, appointment, assignment,
duties, promotion, demotion, compensation, evaluation,
disciplining, resignation or dismissal of an individual
or group of public officials, appointees or employees
of the body or agency," and it is this last exception
to the open meeting law that has raised the ire of
Matthew Sturgis and Pam Wilkinson with regard to this
Council's session.
The Council wanted to discuss the above items among
themselves, and notified the public through the regular
notification procedures that they were planning to
do so, and according to the law, stated the citation
in the notice. They were not going to invite the Manager
into the session. The previous Council had held a
private session last year without the Manager, when
they discussed creating performance criteria for the
Manager's upcoming evaluation.
At the September 29 meeting, just before the Council
closed it and entered executive session, Mr. Sturgis
asked the Council to allow him to speak. Mr. Sturgis
asked why the Council had not invited the Manager
to the meeting, because in his view, the Manager was
allowed to be present.
Chair Gary Foster replied that the statute allows
them to engage in the aforementioned discussions without
another party to be present, and that the statute
only decrees that parties who are charged and/or investigated
must be allowed to attend. "Since we are not
charging or investigating anyone, that portion of
the law does not apply," Mr. Foster said. Mr.
Sturgis asked if the Council had consulted the Town
Attorney as to this session's legality, and was told
that they hadn't done so because the law as the Council
interpreted it clearly allowed them to make the discussions
as cited.
Later stating to The Monument, Mr. Sturgis said that,
"I believe fully that the session was illegal
and that the Council is going down a wrong path. Because
they were discussing a person who was not present
and that impacts his due process. Also I think it
was irresponsible not to have consulted the Attorney."
Mr. Foster said in an interview that "Our discussions
in the September 29 Executive session were specific
to our expectations of the Town Manager with respect
to his working relationship with the Council, as stated
in the public notice. Our intent is to clearly define
duties and expectations in order to improve this working
relationship."
At the October 6 Council meeting, former Chair Pam
Wilkinson asked the Council for the meeting minutes
related the portion of the previous week's executive
session that was held in public. Mr. Foster replied
that the meeting was convened, a vote was taken at
6:07, Mr. Sturgis spoke, the Council closed the public
portion of the meeting at 6:22, and they came out
at shortly after 9 p.m.
Ms. Wilkinson asked if she could have a copy of those
minutes and if they would be posted on the website.
Mr. Foster said yes.
Ms. Wilkinson told the Council that the law states
that the proper citation that allows the closed session
must be included in the notification to the public,
which they did, she said. Also, though, the precise
nature of the discussions must be also included in
the notice, and this they did not do, she said.
Vice-Chair Andy Upham said that the topics that they
were to discuss were stated in the citation, but Ms.
Wilkinson insisted that they must state both the statute
and the precise nature. Mr. Upham asked Ms. Wilkinson
if the Council had repeated both paragraphs in the
notice if that would have satisfied her. She said
yes.
Asked for comment, Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz said,
"Thank you for the opportunity to comment. My
comments were informational and that I read into the
record what the State Law on Executive Sessions stated.
This was at the Council meeting when Councilor Upham
asked for an Executive Session Meeting. Because I
do not have any other information I cannot make any
comments."
Mr. Foster explained, "As I mentioned, our goal
is to improve communications so the Town Manager can
effectively and efficiently carry out actions and
directives of the Council. Council, in unanimous agreement,
wishes to improve our relationship with who we believe
is a very capable and knowledgeable Town Manager,
by clearly defining our expectations."
