Most meetings are being held in person, but some are still remote or virtual. Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on the meeting you are interested in to learn about meeting locations and any remote options that may be offered.
Thursday, Oct. 28
- Board of Health, 3 p.m., Town Hall
Monday, Nov. 1
- Select Board, 5:30 p.m., Town Hall
Tuesday, Nov. 2
- Zoning Bylaw Task Force, 4:30 p.m.
- T-Time Development Committee, 5 p.m., Town Hall
Wednesday, Nov. 3
- Community Preservation Committee, 5 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 4
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 5 p.m., Town Hall
- Cultural Council, 6 p.m., Town Hall
- Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.
- Climate Action Committee, 7 p.m., virtual
Conversation Starters
Open Meeting Misstep Admitted
The town administrator and the select board have been conducting the town administrator’s job performance review in executive session for the past four years. The Mass. Open Meeting Law does not allow that.
Ever since Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe was hired in 2017, her performance evaluations have been done in private meetings known as executive sessions. The law requires that public bodies such as the select board perform evaluations in public.
In 2017, the select board and Beebe met in executive session to do her evaluation. They did the same in 2019 and 2020, while also discussing contract negotiations in the same session. According to the Mass. attorney general’s office, an executive session may be used to discuss a performance evaluation in preparation for a contract negotiation, but only when a performance evaluation has already been conducted in open session.
Beebe said she did not know that the town’s method for evaluating her job performance violated the law.
In the three closed sessions, she received composite scores of 4.9, 4.8, and 4.7 out of a possible 5. She did not have an evaluation in 2018.
Members of the select board say they were also unaware that they were not following the meeting law. Jamie Demetri, the chair at the time of Beebe’s last review, said the board followed the procedures that were already in place when setting the format of the evaluation.
Going forward, Beebe said, she and the board would separate her evaluations and contract negotiations, moving the former into public sessions. A date has not yet been set for Beebe’s 2021 evaluation. —Cam Blair
