Good for the Sentinel, Bad for Fitchburg

The Sentinel reports today that the School Committee did, in fact, break the Open Meeting Law when it met behind closed doors to discuss Supt. Andre Ravenelle's job performance last month.

After the Sentinel questioned the legality of the meeting (we discussed here at length also, but we're guessing the Sentinel took some formal steps), Mayor Dan Mylott asked the City Solicitor to investigate. The clear-cut answer was the meeting was illegal.

What has us itchy about it now is Mylott's discussion that the closed-door session was an oversight because no one checked to see if an executive session was legal in this instance.

In our experience, most boards are very cognizant of the Open Meeting Law. In some communities, new officials are given some kind of written primer on the law and how it works and the exemptions for executive session.

Let's put this way: A reporter knew the session was likely illegal. Shouldn't at least one member of the School Committee have known? Mylott has been a public official for 20 years. Shouldn't this have at least led to a question before the session was held? Reporters are taught the Open Meeting Law in their first job, but should they know it better than public officials?

Why was the School Committee even considering evaluating Ravenelle in private? Shouldn't the city's top educator be reviewed in public? What did the School Committee not want the rest of the city to hear? Unfortunately, these are the questions that come out of such a situation.

Whether it was innocent ignorance or blatant disregard, the fact of the matter is the School Committee clearly doesn't understand the law even enough to ask a question in advance, forget violating the law. Would an elected official please ask the City Solicitor to prepare a memo that outlines the OML, and have the memo distributed throughout City Hall? And have the memo delivered to new people as they are elected? This eliminates the whole "we didn't know excuse," and hopefully puts an end to illegal meetings. It isn't very hard.