Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Truro are remote. Go to truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch. The agenda includes instructions on how to join.
Thursday, Aug. 4
- Climate Action Committee, 10:30 a.m.
Monday, Aug. 8
- Energy Committee, 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 9
- Council on Aging, 9 a.m.
- Local Comprehensive Planning Committee, 10 a.m., Truro Public Library
Thursday, Aug. 11
- Economic Development Committee, 9:30 a.m.
Conversation Starters
Insufficiently Specific
Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey sent a notice to Kristen Reed, chair of the Truro Select Board, indicating the Mass. Dept. of Open Government had found that the board violated the state’s Open Meeting Law. The notice, sent on Aug. 1, followed a complaint filed on May 4 by Ronald Beaty, a former Barnstable County commissioner.
Beaty, who lives in West Barnstable, not Truro, calls himself the “Donald Trump of Cape Cod” and is well known for regularly filing complaints against Cape Cod government bodies.
In this complaint, Beaty claimed the board posted an “insufficiently specific” notice regarding its March 8 executive session, and that the board “failed to periodically review executive session minutes.”
The notice for the March 8 meeting did not identify the units with whom the board would be engaged in collective bargaining and therefore discussing negotiation strategy in its executive session. After receiving the complaint from Beaty, the select board amended its notice to specify that the collective bargaining strategy discussion on April 19 related to negotiations with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, the Truro Police Federation, and the Truro Permanent Firefighters, according to the notice from the attorney general’s office.
The Dept. of Open Government also determined that the board had not sufficiently reviewed and released minutes of executive sessions on a regular basis. After receiving the initial complaint, the board released minutes from four closed meetings held during the last year. The notice ordered that the board review all outstanding executive session minutes within 60 days but noted that the department considers the matter now closed. The Truro Select Board released a statement acknowledging the oversights and assuring the public of its plan to be vigilant in meeting notices and reviewing executive session minutes going forward.
“The Board recognizes the core value of transparency underlying the Open Meeting Law and is committed to improving its practices to ensure compliance,” the statement concluded. —Nora Markey
