Council,
Manager talk in Executive Session
By Elizabeth Prata
Gray--The Town Council went into executive session
Monday night to discuss their expectations of Manager
Mitchell A. Berkowitz and they stayed behind closed
doors for over an hour.
State Law only allows the doors to be closed to the
public at public meetings for specific reasons, one
of which are personnel matters. As the publicly noticed
citation described, the Council's discussion could
range over the following topics and no others: "Discussion
or consideration of the employment, appointment, assignment,
duties, promotion, demotion, compensation, evaluation,
disciplining… of an individual or group of public
officials." Specifically they were to discuss
duties and job performance of the Town Manager.
As the four Councilors waited for latecomer Denise
Duda, they chatted with the Manager in an increasingly
tense atmosphere. Seven minutes after the appointed
time for the vote, Chair Gary Foster said that he
would take a motion since they would wait no longer
for Ms. Duda. There was no discussion except a question
from Councilor John Welch. Mr. Welch asked, "Do
we have to be specific?" Mr. Foster said yes,
that they must talk only on the cited topics.
The vote to close the doors for this private discussion
was 4-1 and it began at 6:09. Ms. Duda arrived several
minutes later and was let in after the session started.
She had been absent for the vote in a previous executive
session to discuss the duties and expectations of
the Manager as well, and had arrived after the doors
had closed then too.
The Council and Manager came out of private session
at 7:23 with no action and no comment. The public
portion of the Council meeting began after the executive
session was completed, though no public was in attendance,
except this reporter.
