Right to Know petition denied by Superior Court
The Superior Court of Carroll County has spoken in regard to my recent Right to Know petition which claimed that the police chief screening committee met in illegal non-public session and has ruled, based upon the information it was provided, that there was no RTK violation.
As stated previously this was not about the person selected, Chief Dawson, who is a good officer and a good choice. I support the outcome fully, but I objected to the process.
Equally important, the ruling also determined that the petition was not “in bad faith, frivolous, unjust, vexatious, wanton or oppressive” and denied the towns request for attorney’s fees to be paid by the plaintiff. The court agreed that erroneous information was provided to the plaintiff by the town, but that by itself did not constitute a RTK violation, which was the only focus of the court regarding this petition.
The court could only rule based upon what it was presented by both parties. The hard copies of the screening committee meeting notices (which no one I know had ever seen posted), was presented to the court as if they were posted correctly. They played a key role in the courts decision.
The bottom line is that this situation could have been avoided if the town had simply been open and forthright in it’s dealings with citizens. Here is what they should do going forward:
- They should announce in public session (which they did not do for the police chief screening committee until after they already met) any subcommittees that have been formed so that the public will be aware and can look for meeting notices.
- The selectmen need to be much more diligent in how they write and review meeting minutes. The court agreed that although the selectmen said one thing in the minutes, they actually meant something else. This means that they need to actually read and correct minutes (each week if necessary) instead of just making a motion to approve as written.
- Make it a policy to post all meeting notices on the town web and calendar as one of the two official places that meetings are posted. That would go a long way to informing the public and avoiding any suspicion of wrongdoing.
Paul T. Punturieri
Former member of the Moultonboro Citizens Alliance
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A comment made by the Chair of the BoS, that was not published by any newspaper, but rather announced at their meeting on October 29, 2009, says that the town spent $2000 and over 40 hours in staff time on this litigation. Time and money she felt could have been better spent elsewhere. Hmmm. If that is what it costs for the BoS and other boards and committees, to fully understand the Right To Know Law, then it is time and money well spent!! It’s obvious that prior to this lawsuit, the BoS and their TA were willing to disregard the importance of adhering to this law. Now perhaps they will think twice before trying to fool the very people who can chose to vote for someone else in the future.