Police Board Not Bound by Meeting Law
Media Law: The Massachusetts open meeting law does not apply to a board created to review citizen complaints against police, the Hampden County district attorney’s office has decided, according to a report yesterday in The Republican newspaper. The opinion issued by Assistant District Attorney Katherine E. McMahon concludes that the Community Complaint Review Board is not a governmental body covered by the law and therefore does not have to post notices of its meetings.
Springfield’s mayor created the nine-member board last year to review resident complaints against the police department. The executive order creating the board expressly stated that it “shall not be a board of the city, but a board of mayor.” Given this, the DA’s office concluded the board serves only as an adviser to the mayor.
I have not seen the DA’s opinion letter. If this board is purely advisory, the ruling is probably correct — even if unfortunate. The open meeting law does not apply to an individual government official such as a mayor, only to committees and boards. If official who is exempt from the law appoints an informal committee to provide advice on a matter within the authority of that official, that committee is also exempt from the law.
This interpretation is based on a 1991 Supreme Judicial Court decision, Connelly v. School Committee of Hanover, that held that a committee appointed by a school superintendent to assist him in hiring a school principal was not covered by the law.
“Of special significance is the fact that the superintendent, because he is clearly not a ‘governmental body,’ could, by himself, have accomplished the task of screening and interviewing candidates in a closed session, entirely free from the requirements of the open meeting law. This was his independent and exclusive statutory responsibility, … and the selection committee was assembled…