Woburn Mayor Seeks To End Lifetime Terms For Library Trustees

WOBURN, MA — Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin is working on special legislation to change the structure of the Public Library Board of Trustees, he said on Woburn Public Media Center's "Today In Woburn" Monday.

Host Samantha Stone asked Galvin about the acrimonious Jan. 19 meeting of the Board of Trustees, which was called to discuss Open Meetings Law complaints against the board.

"The trustees' meeting was appalling," Galvin said.

Galvin said the lifetime trustee structure, which applies to the majority of the board's nine members, is "not condoned."

"We're in the process of getting special legislation together to correct that," he said.

Patch reached out to Galvin for more information on the special legislation and will update this story when we hear back.

At the recent meeting, Board President Janet Rabbitt said that the Board had hired an attorney to review and respond to open meetings law complaints against it, prompting questions from two members who said they had no recollection of hiring an attorney and that they have been left out of recent meetings.

"I'm finding I'm not invited to a lot of the meetings," Trustee Joanne McNamee said.

"Joanne and I were never a part of this decision," Trustee Richard Mahoney said.

Rabbitt insisted that McNamee was not available, that there had been a quorum and that they had not intended to conceal anything.

"You would have voted against it anyway, so what's the point?" Rabbitt asked at one point.

"I'm not at all happy with the actions of the president and it needs to be addressed," Galvin said about the meeting.

The recent confrontation between the trustees traces to a labor battle that began over the summer, with the library threatening layoffs. The library faces a number of open meeting law complaints and public records requests, some of which it is attempting to fight.

In Dec., the state Supervisor of Records ordered the library to provide records related to a named trust, after the library had argued that the trust was not subject to the public records law.

Rabbitt drew a distinction at the Jan. 19 meeting between the board of trustees and the library "corporation," which she argued is a private entity not subject to the open meeting law or the public records law.

"The patrons have decided they want to see everything related to the trust funds," Rabbitt said. "We are a stand-alone private entity. The public is not entitled to this information."

Rabbitt argued that the bequests to the library are private records.

"That's why we hired an attorney, to protect the corporation and the rights of the trusts," she said.

Rabbitt said that the board voted at a regular meeting to authorize $25,000 to retain an attorney, but could not remember which meeting. At the board's Sept. 15 meeting, the board did vote, with McNamee and Mahoney abstaining, to "engage legal counsel," but no dollar amount was mentioned.

The corporation, meanwhile, voted to retain a public relations person, for $5,000, Rabbitt said.

The Board is waiting on further legal advice about the corporation-board of trustees distinction, she said.

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

Correction: An earlier version of this story said the public relations person was hired for $5,000. They were retained for that money.