7/14/2010 BOARD OF HEALTH Minutes

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Town oj Alashpee - Town Clerk W M16,Great Neck Road North Mashpee-MA 02649 u. Phone#508-539-1400 ext. 534 �� .`� _ °•, P�` :° Tax,#508-539-2892 R'ysj^ LL CO ' r "; e-mail address TownClerk@ci.mashpee ma.us .. To: Boards, Committees; Commissions . JUrI 2512010 From: Deborah F. _ Town Clerk �f� �� Date: June 25, 2010 Re: New Open Meeting Law requirements The Open Meeting Law (MGL 39, Sec 23B) requires that all government meetings shall be open to the public. Recently the Open Meeting Law was revised to include a number of changes; some rather significant. Beginning July 1, 2010, the Attorney General will now become the enforcement agency regarding any and all violations to the law. In the past, you were able to submit a request to post your meetings generically. For example, a committee may have submitted to this office a request to meeting every second and fourth Wednesday of the month for the entire year. While this will no longer be acceptable, you can use this concept to reserve the room (see attachment 1). Your room reservation will not be considered at any time as an official posting for your governmental body to meet. Additionally, either a board member or the board secretary will need to personally come to the Town Clerk's Office and both parties will be required to sign off on the original posting request. No longer will entails or fares be considered as an acceptable means for posting a meeting. Effective July 1, 2010, it will be necessary for your Board, Commission, and Committee to submit your agenda as part of the posting of your meeting. Please note that effective July I"Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays will be excluded from the 43 hour notice period. For example, if you wish to post a meeting for Monday evening, your meeting notice/agenda must be posted with the Town Clerk's Office no later than Thursday. I have attached (see attachment 2) a sample for you to follow when developing your meeting notice/agenda. I have also attached (see attachment 3) a sample of the Board of Selectmen's agenda that lists all of the items to be discussed at a recent meeting. One of the new requirements under the new Open Meeting Law is the need for specificity. Your meeting notice/agenda shall include a list of topics the Chair anticipates will bediscussedat the meeting. As you can see from the Selectmen's agenda, the items reflected on the Selectmen's agenda fulfills these new requirements. However, please understand that should an item be received after you have posted your meeting notice/agenda with this office, and it requires immediate attention by your Board, Commission, or Committee, a simple role call to add the item to the agenda will be acceptable. When developing your meeting notice/agenda for an upcoming meeting, items to be addressed in Executive Session shall be specifically identified on your agenda without compromising the purpose for which the Executive Session is called. A role call vote (see attachment 4) of each member of your board must be taken prior to entering into Executive Session. The Chair shall also publicly announce whether open session will reconvene after the Executive Session has concluded.