By Charlie Deitz
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-957188.mp3
Massachusetts – Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is touting the achievements they've made in enforcing the state's open meeting laws and promoting transparent government. WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz reports that one advocacy group says the laws don't go far enough
In July of last year the Attorney General's office took over the task of enforcing open meeting laws for towns and cities across the state, instead of having all of the district attorneys do the work. The move was done for a number of reasons, like providing a uniform set of policies and to be able to go after violators more quickly. Behind the stepped up enforcement was Common Cause Massachusetts, a group whose mission is to work toward better government access and accountability. Executive Director Pam Wilmont explains that the new open meeting laws were part of a state ethics reform package passed in 2009.
Most cities and towns already had policies in place as to how they informed the public about committee meetings and city council affairs, but this law wanted to see the process beefed up. Instead of just posting a date and time for a meeting, cities were required to post and agenda as well, instead of housing written materials in a vault, they had to be duplicated and stored along with meeting minutes, additionally cities were required to post all of their upcoming events on some sort of screen displayed in city hall. Back in July, Pittsfield City Clerk Linda Tyer told WAMC that the demands were burdensome, and came off as unfunded mandates from Beacon Hill.
Fast forward to mid march 2011, Tyer says the attorney general listened to cities complaints and scaled back or modified the list of demands.
Instead of the display screen, the city was allowed to post upcoming meetings on their website, instead of duplicating documents, they were able to store originals in the filing system, and point citizens there. With all of these changes, Tyer says they are in compliance with the state's rules, but it hasn't done much to drive public interest in city hall.
And that's a rule that applies to every city hall in the state. But Wilmont contends that the open meeting laws don't apply to state legislators nor to most state agencies, so there's some work to do. On top of that there ahs been some cases where town officials willfully disobey the statutes.
Attorney General Coakley did not respond to requests for an interview in time for this broadcast. Her office claims that they have handled over 1400 requests from the government and citizens since July. This is on the heels of Sunshine week, which starts Monday. Sunshine Week is a national event that focuses on transparent government and community involvement.