GREENFIELD — Mayor William Martin has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office alleging the Greenfield School Committee violated the state’s Open Meeting Law when it approved new teacher contracts behind closed doors, without posting the topic on the meeting agenda in advance in accordance with the law.
The original complaint, filed Jan. 6, has yet to be resolved. In a request for further review sent to the attorney general on March 14, Martin wrote the vote was hastily ratified at a special meeting Dec. 30 by a vote of the outgoing School Committee, which was completing its term of office the next day, and it included a wage settlement committing the district to provide raises to employees over the next four years.
The new contracts, which include a one-year contract retroactive to September 2015 and a three-year contract beginning July 1, include a general 3 percent wage increase each year, according to Greenfield Education Association President Thomas Bevacqua.
Martin said he’s requesting that the prior vote of the committee be set aside and a new vote be taken that complies with the Open Meeting Law.
“Because the public is looking at a multi-year, million-dollar-plus contract, it should have had some open discussion,” Martin said. “Transparency, open public hearings and forum for discussion seems to be a lost art in some committees.”
Martin also questioned whether former School Committee Chairwoman Maryelen Calderwood, who is an official of the Massachusetts Teachers Association — the parent organization of the Greenfield Education Association representing Greenfield educators in the negotiations — should have participated in discussions about collective bargaining and chaired the meeting when the vote took place.
Calderwood, who is longer on the committee, said she has not seen a copy of Martin’s complaint, but said the committee’s attorney advised her on the agenda posting and that she abstained from voting on the collective bargaining agreements.
“It’s my understanding based on the information given by the School Committee attorney, who checked with the Attorney General’s Office and verified that for collective bargaining agreements, you vote in executive session and then you don’t have to vote outside of executive session,” she said.
Calderwood declined to comment on her involvement with the Teacher’s Association but said she’s fully disclosed her position in the past.
“I was rarely in negotiations,” she added. “The attorney negotiated this contract.”
Peter Smith, attorney for the School Committee, said his understanding is that Calderwood had her involvement with the Teacher’s Association reviewed and was told that it was not a conflict of interest.
In a Jan. 12 letter to Martin regarding his complaint, Smith wrote that it was not until 4:49 p.m. the day of the special meeting that the language of the collective bargaining agreement was agreed to by the legal representatives of the School Committee and the Greenfield Education Association. He wrote the agenda was amended to include an executive session for strategies with respect to collective bargaining for 6:30 p.m.
“When I spoke to the attorneys from the Attorney General’s Office, they made it very clear that this ratification of a contract through a collective bargaining agreement can be held in executive session and does not have to be ratified in open session,” Smith said. “We were very careful with that.”
“Their language exactly to me was, ‘It’s a done deal,’” he added.
Martin noted in his request for further review that the Open Meeting Law requires a public body to post notices at least 48 hours in advance of a meeting. He wrote while it’s true the committee may consider an unanticipated topic not listed on the notice, he believes the collective bargaining agreement vote was not unanticipated at the time the agenda was posted.
“My contention is that with the last posted negotiations subcommittee meeting of December 15, 2015 with ‘GEA: Unit A … collective bargaining’ noted on the agenda, there was ample time to include an agenda item for the December 30, 2015 special meeting,” Martin wrote.
He added that during the executive session, there was no discussion of collective bargaining “strategy” — bargaining had already taken place and the committee was presented with the tentative agreement and asked to vote on it, without review.
Martin further questioned if the vote should have passed at all, with three members voting in favor of it, one voting against it and two abstaining.
Smith said given the confusion about the vote, school counsel researched the law and found that the abstentions are viewed as “prevailing” votes, and because the majority of members voted in favor of the motion, the motion passed.
One committee member who voted in favor of the agreements and one who abstained sit on the current seven-member committee.
In his request for further review, Martin also wrote that the Negotiations, Finance and Budget subcommittee meetings appeared to take place without a quorum of committee members between July 1 and Dec. 30.
After Martin requested the School Committee void the vote on the collective bargaining agreements and vote again, the Greenfield Education Association filed a charge of prohibitive practice against the School Committee with the state Department of Labor Relations.
The charge states that Martin participated in collective bargaining negotiations as a member of the School Committee and verbally stated his personal agreement to a wage package for teacher contracts, but later argued at the special meeting Dec. 30 that the town could not afford the wage package and cast the sole vote against it.
Martin said the charge has yet to be addressed as a meeting has not been scheduled.
Timothy Farrell, current School Committee chairman, said he wants to reassure the public that all meetings will now be posted property and held legally.
“I think the public needs to know that we’ve got a strong school committee now,” he said. “This shouldn’t reflect on how this School Committee, as of Jan. 1, does business. I’m committed to a positive, transparent culture moving forward.”
You can reach Aviva Luttrell at:
aluttrell@recorder.com
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