TURNERS FALLS — Gill-Montague Regional School Committee members responded to an Open Meeting Law complaint and passed a unanimous statement saying the complaint was untimely and “had no merit.”
The complaint was filed by Chris Pinardi, who runs a Facebook page dedicated to saving the Turners Falls High School’s former mascot, and was in reference to a meeting over a year ago, on March 8, 2016. That meeting was two months before the board heard from members of the public asking them to change the mascot.
Among other concerns about the validity of the request, the committee said at this week’s meeting that the district’s lawyer said timeliness negated the complaint. The Open Meeting Law requires that complaints about a meeting be submitted within 30 days of the alleged complaint.
The meeting complaint was in reference to the comments of Timmy Smith, who at the time was discussing certain policies the district and the committee had.
The committee received the complaint and the school district’s lawyer reviewed it and said the complaint didn’t have merit. Several school board members said that it appeared that Pinardi had mixed parts of the Open Meeting Law with the Public Records Law.
“I don’t think this person understands what it means to violate the Open Meeting Law because I don’t think we did,” committee member Sandy Brown said.
Committee member Christina Postera suggested that the board continue to clarify how the board can and cannot communicate on issues. Members can speak one-on-one with each other, but they cannot meet in a quorum outside an open meeting.
“That obviously seems to be the issue here, that there’s a confusion here that needs to be clarified,” she said.
Pinardi did not respond to a request for further comment but said during the meeting that the statement about the emails in March was an issue because concerns about the school’s mascot would be brought to the committee two months later, in May.
“A member of this board issued a statement that no ‘confidential’ information should be sent via email as it becomes a public record,” he said. “So if it’s really confidential, it’s excluded under the laws of the FOIA from becoming publicly accessible anyway so why make such a broad statement about email? The timing of these two statements seems curious given the proximity to the meeting that was to follow shortly after.”
Pinardi’s complaint to the AG’s office also called for the board to “act in an open and transparent manner and that all discussions take place with all parties and that these discussions be made public by all means except those covered by executive session.”
The resolution passed by the committee will go to the AG’s office as the district’s response to the complaint.