Ex-Library Trustees' Open Meeting Law Violations 'Egregious': AG

WOBURN, MA — The Woburn Public Library Board of Trustees repeatedly violated the state Open Meetings Law in Sept. and Oct. 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General's said in a July 7 letter to the city solicitor.

Violations included voice voting during a remote meeting, not providing enough access to a remote meeting and not approving meeting minutes quickly enough, Assistant Attorney General Sarah Monahan wrote.

But the biggest concern was a pair of secret October meetings, according to the letter.

"Although our investigation revealed many concerning actions taken by the Board, we find the Board’s two secret meetings—on October 2, 2020, when six members of the Board approved hiring and paying a public relations firm, and October 5, 2020, when at least a quorum of the Board approved hiring outside legal counsel—to be particularly egregious," Monahon wrote. "Both meetings were held behind closed doors, without posting notice, and were only acknowledged to the public after the fact."

The legal counsel was hired to respond to Open Meetings Law complaints, the letter notes.

The attorney general did not impose any fines for the "egregious unposted meetings" because the only trustees who are still serving were excluded from those meetings. The other seven members, which the complaints "primarily pertain to," all resigned in Feb. 2021.

But the current members were ordered to approve meeting minutes as best they can and to take an Open Meetings Law training with the Attorney General's Office within three months.

Trustees Richard Mahoney and Joanne McNamee were excluded from the two secret meetings and remain on the board. Two other members have been added.

The office's investigation was in response to complaints filed by Jasmine Parthasarathy, D. Andrews, Dale Goldstein, and Christine Kitowicz-Anderson.

Not every alleged violation was upheld. Monahan wrote that the law was not violated when there was only a zoom link and no phone number for a Sept. 10 meeting, when there was no public participation at two meetings, when board members made a library archives visit or when board members wrote Daily Times Chronicle letters to the editor.

The letter traces the violations back to a spring 2020 discussion of proposed library layoffs. A controversy grew around the proposed staff cuts, the board, and then-Library Director Bonnie Roalsen until a Jan. 19 meeting where one of the secret meetings came to light.

In the fallout of that meeting, Mayor Scott Galvin introduced legislation to change the library's leadership structure and seven trustees, the director and the assistant director all resigned.

"Due to these resignations, the evidence available during our investigation was at times limited," Mahoney wrote.

As of June, the letter notes, the board still only had four members, one short of the number needed for a quorum of the nine-member body.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.