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Scott Graves Sends Gardner MA City Council Back to School
Despite Gardner MA City Council Having Good Intentions, Scott Graves Sends City Council Back to School on Technical Violations of Open Meeting Law.
One allegation concerned an email sent by Council President Elizabeth Kazinskas in which she communicated to the full City Council on December 30, 2021 informing them of her proposal to add an appointments committee because there would be 300 appointments expiring over the next 2 years. Apparently by giving her opinion via this method, she technically violated the Open Meeting Law. Another violation concerned the Council’s oversight in not approving 8/2/21 meeting minutes until April 19, 2022 which wasn’t considered timely. And, yet another violation was found in which the Council President circulated via email a proposed response to a Scott Graves lawsuit – the AG’s office considered this transparency to be a technical violation, calling it a deliberation. Finding: Each member of the Gardner City Council needs to attend Open Meeting Law Training, which is offered monthly via webinar. They must do so within 90 days of 8/1/22.
We are including the actual email from City Clerk to City Councilors and the full letters sent to Gardner by the Attorney General’s office. First AG Letter Second AG Letter Email from City Clerk to Councilors.
Publisher’s Editorial Note: Here’s my opinion of this nonsense with an analogy – If you inspect any sterile hospital room, you are bound to find a spec of dust. All of the City Council’s actions were in doing good for the City despite the technical infractions, and the irony is not lost that one of the matters concerned Graves lawsuits, somewhat like getting caught in an endless loop of nonsense. Our advice to City Council: From now on, dot the I’s and cross the t’s because this was an unneeded waste of City resources. And to Scott Graves: You can always find a spec of dust in a sterile room, but is this litigation good for Gardner? To City Councilors: Pack a nutritious lunch, because you’re going back to School!
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