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‘Progressive’ City Council abuses vulnerable persons—and free speech
Schuster: prepare kids for the long term
East Cambridge Property
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City council, administration in private get-together
The mayor of Cambridge, the city council, the city manager and his deputy, the city clerk, and several high-level aides convened at 9:00 am on the morning of Friday the 13th at the Library Room of the MIT Hotel for an unpublicized private "retreat."
It was around 10:30 when we opened the doors and walked into the Library Room. The first guy who saw us was the City Manager, who was walking along the side of the room toward us with a plate of chow.
The folks sitting around the tables were obviously surprised, and not particularly happy to see us. We snapped a few photos. The first one was of the Council Secretary who walked rapidly up and told us anxiously that this was not a public meeting but a "retreat," and that we had to leave.
Suddenly Hotel Security was glowering at us. He said nothing, but swept his right arm through the air in that "after you, monsieur" gesture, while holding the door open with his left.
Our friend and City Clerk Margaret Drury came out with the security man and told us, "This is a retreat, which according to the Attorney General (Tom Riley) and District Attorney (Martha Coakley) doesn't come under the Open Meeting Law." It qualified as a retreat because "current policy wasnt going to be discussed."
This was an answer to a question we had not asked, and had not planned to ask. They must have anticipated the question.
Ms Drury confirmed that this was the first ever "retreat" of this sort.
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An email received by neighborhood activists early on the morning of the retreat made the following statement:
"It seems the power elite have decided they need a catered hideaway and a paid trainer/facilitator to help them with team building and collegial communication skills before the city councilors can meet publicly to hash out their official goals for the upcoming year.
"Our elected leaders apparently have decided behind our backs that their dysfunctional interactions with top city administrators and among themselves are not matters of public policy or official business within their purview, so convening as a collective governmental body to discuss the situation falls outside the scope of the state's Open Meeting Law.
"Perhaps they have a point. But that begs the question of why the council's decision to conduct a catered private retreat with public funds was concealed from the public and how the body reached that decision without a public vote at a properly noticed open meeting."
In May of this year, seven citizens led by Harvard Square activist Pebble Gifford brought a lawsuit against the City for violations of the Open Meeting Law. The City argued that special committees appointed by the City Manager were not subject to that law.
The plaintiffs argued that the Manager effectively made a new law allowing alcohol to be served at tables placed on city sidewalks, with his own appointees meeting in private to avoid any public comment or review process.