City Council President Marc Laredo released this memo today regarding an anonymous complaint filed following a May 20 gathering of 11 female Newton City Councilors who say they met to discuss the speak about “the appropriateness of the way women were being treated” by their colleagues.
At my request, the Law Department looked into the anonymous complaint the City
Clerk received on Thursday, June 7, 2018 alleging that the Open Meeting Law was violated when 11 members of the City Council met on May 20, 2018. The Law Department interviewed all members of the City Council who were invited to the meeting and has concluded that the Open Meeting Law was not violated.
Talk about your nothingburger. Every single one of those women knows exactly what the Open Meeting Law requires and allows. Little to no chance that they talked about anything they shouldn’t have.
As for the complaint …
Was somebody’s fee-fees hurt that he wasn’t invited into the club? I mean seriously, women have been effectively shut out of power for generations. The scales start to tilt ever so slightly in the other direction and an anonymous cry-baby calls foul.
@Sean: Isn’t it more likely someone with a strong interest in the Crescent Street project? Anyway, the interesting part of this story is not the complaint but whatever is happening between men and women at the city council.
The complaint says it was filed with the AG anonymously “due to concerns that there will be retribution.”
Now we know that the complaint was without merit. But in the process there was a page one story in the TAB this week that cast aspersions on councilors who we’ve now confirmed did not break the law.
Retribution, is not the right response. But there should be consequences for the coward who filed this.
Coming to this late, but what about the meeting suggested that the complaint had merit in the first place? Did someone really think that these women so lack integrity or intelligence that they would gather illegally? Have you ever spoken to any one of them for more than 10 minutes?
This should have been laughed off from minute one as a manufactured scandal.
@Newtoner, Maybe it could be one and the same person: a male councilor who thought the women were getting “uppity” AND who opposes blowing up the Crescent Street plan. Who knows?
Also, with all due respect to the Law Department, its opinion here is only advisory. Only the AG can rule decisively on OML. (The TAB needs to change its latest headline; the Law Department has no authority to “clear” in this matter.)
Of course, none of this matters because the complaint was made anonymously, which makes it seem frivolous. (I don’t buy the “fear of retribution” claim. )
This isn’t implying that I am 100 percent certain the OML was not unintentionally violated; I just have a strong feeling this was political mischief.
OK, now when does the law department look into allegations that male city councilors are acting inappropriately towards women?
And was this now clearly frivolous complaint just another way to send the message to these female councilors that if you don’t just get used to the way things have always been, there will be consequences?
I read this morning’s Tab about the women city councilors. I am very disappointed that the entire council was not present. This is a poor way to resolve meeting protocol. The women’s complaints appear to be aimed at all the men. This is most misleading. I would think the men need a chance to present their point of view.
Wow Colleen, way to support our women councilors?!?!
Isn’t it valid for legislative caucuses to form and meet based on any shared interest or identity? For example, there is a Congressional Black Caucus. In congress there is a Women’s Caucus.
http://www.womenspolicy.org/caucus-leadership/womens-caucus-leadership-115th-congress/
Why shouldn’t women councilors in Newton be able to caucus?
I am very troubled by how this story is kept from the public. The councilors may have the right to meet privately, but now this story is out there, everyone knows there’s something wrong happening at the city council, but no details. It seems like they all agreed to stay silent for now. I hope this is in preparation for some concrete formal action or statement. This is also a bad situation for the male councilors not involved in “inappropriate behavior” – their integrity is in question until the details come out.
@Andy: Neither the City’s Law Department nor the AG’s Office is obligated to investigate or rule or issue an opinion on a complaint that is filed anonymously. The Law Department looked into this matter from a request made by Council President Laredo.
Dumb question, but is the US Congress even subject to something analogous to the Open Meeting Law? I’m not sure it is, and even if there is a federal equivalent, I suspect female or black members of Congress are not a majority of any committee, in which case they can caucus all they want, and even talk congressional business all they want, with no restraint.
@Julia: The state’s Open Meeting Laws don’t even apply to our state legislature. And there is not a federal rule.