GREENFIELD — The city’s response to an Open Meeting Law complaint filed against the Planning Board last month has highlighted a discrepancy in documentation that is publicly available online and what is, in fact, the most accurate and up-to-date information.
The complaint, filed by resident Al Norman on Nov. 14, alleged a major vote was made on a commercial development — the 19,432-square-foot Aldi grocery store planned for the site of the now-demolished Candlelight Motor Inn — without a quorum of its members. However, the city’s attorney, Jesse Belcher-Timme, argued in the city’s response to Norman that while the mayor did not have voting authority when she voted during the August meeting in question, a quorum of the board was present, according to the Planning Board’s most current rules and regulations.
Belcher-Timme stated that according to rules and regulations dated May 15, 2014, three Planning Board members constitute a quorum. Members present during the Aug. 3 meeting included Chair George Touloumtzis, Charles Kinney and Amy McMahan, who was elevated that evening to a full voting member by Touloumtzis. Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, serving as an ex-officio member, sat in for former Chair Charles Roberts and voted.
“The mayor’s vote at the Aug. 3 meeting was superfluous and unnecessary with respect to the site plan application and both ANR (Approval Not Required) plans,” Belcher-Timme wrote. “While she voted in favor of all three items, she neither moved nor seconded the approval and her vote was not necessary to the passage of any of the motions in question, nor was her presence necessary to meet quorum requirements for deliberation on any items at the Aug. 3 meeting.”
Meanwhile, the rules and regulations Norman referenced in his complaint — which highlighted his concern for the site plan approval for Aldi — were the ones most readily available online through the city charter, which states four Planning Board members are required for a quorum.
City Clerk Kathy Scott explained that the city’s code encompasses both the city charter and city ordinances. The charter that’s available online was last updated in 2020, though it doesn’t reflect the proposed amendments in the most recent charter review as they still need to be approved by the Legislature, and ordinances within the charter have been updated at different times. The section of the charter that outlines rules and regulations for the Planning Board was last updated in 2011 and states a quorum of four members is required.
However, those rules and regulations that were approved in 2011 were later changed by a Planning Board vote in 2014, according to Planning and Development Director Eric Twarog. The vote reduced the quorum from four members to three.
As a five-member board (plus two alternates), “it made no sense to have a quorum of four,” Twarog said.
“Not everything online is the updated and official version,” he said.
Norman said he plans to emphasize the “bureaucratic problems” created by a “serious lack of updated records” and the “ignorance of the mayor’s non-voting status” in his response to Belcher-Timme.
“This inability to present an accurate eCode to citizens undermines the credibility of the city’s ability to keep its public records up to date and publicly available,” he said.
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter (X): @MaryEByrne.