March meeting still troubles some Walpole residents

A resident called the Norfolk County district attorney's office last week inquiring about possible legal violations stemming from a March 6 meeting between residents, town officials and employees of Competitive Power Ventures.

Until a formal complaint is made, though, there is "nothing under investigation or review by (the district attorney's office) at this time in the town of Walpole," said David Traub, spokesman for the district attorney's office.

Any resident can request, in writing, that the D.A.'s office investigate whether any board has violated the state's Open Meeting Law, Traub said. Or, any three citizens can file suit in Norfolk Superior Court, he said.

With certain exceptions, state law requires that all government meetings be open to the public and that no quorum of any governmental body meet in private to decide, or move toward deciding, an issue.

Between 20 and 30 residents and Town Meeting members and a handful of Competitive Power officials attended a March 6 meeting at a Precinct 4 home. The meeting took place four days before a special Town Meeting dealt with the zoning bylaw rewrite related to the Competitive Power's interest in building a 580-megawatt power plant in South Walpole.

Many residents and Town Meeting members framed Article 2 as a referendum on the power plant. The article fell nine votes short of passing.

After an official for Competitive Power spoke about the meeting in May, many residents called for an investigation.

"This is very upsetting to myself and the citizens of Walpole," John Vaillancourt, a Precinct 5 Town Meeting hopeful, said at the time. He worried that Competitive Power could have used the March 6 meeting to improperly influence the voting on Article 2 at special Town Meeting.

Those at the get-together deny anything improper took place.

Town Moderator Jon Rockwood said he had never heard of anyone improperly influencing Town Meeting or Town Meeting members. An online discussion group of state moderators deals with "everything under the sun," he said. But that issue had never come up.

Any promises contingent on a certain action would be improper, he said. But he didn't know of any allegations of that. He understood the meeting as "merely an exchange of information."

Asked to imagine what might constitute improper influence, Rockwood wondered if guests were privy to information that other Town Meeting members weren't. He didn't know if this would be improper.

"There's a lot of ways (Town Meeting members) come into possession of information," he said.

Above all, he said, "I believe in the integrity of the Town Meeting members whether they went to the meeting or not."

This extended to any suggestion that town officials who attended the meeting may have violated Open Meeting Law, he said.

To him, the Open Meeting Law does not apply to Town Meeting by statute. Town Meeting cannot reach quorum without a legally valid warrant, he said.

It wouldn't be an official meeting without a warrant, Rockwood said. They couldn't transact any business, he said.

One attendee, Joanne Mulligan, a Town Meeting member from Precinct 5, said 20 to 25 residents were on hand and not all were Town Meeting members.

Kevin Foley, a Precinct 4 Town Meeting member and the event's organizer, estimated similar numbers. It's possible 30 people showed up, he said. Many were residents and not Town Meeting members.

Rockwood pointed out, however, that in Walpole and many other similar towns, Town Meeting members often double as town board members. Hypothetically, if a gathering of Town Meeting members included, say, three members of the Board of Selectmen, "then you would have an issue," Rockwood said.

That concern was expressed in a number of local online forums.

"Would that kind of meeting constitute a violation of the Open Meeting Law?" Rockwood asked rhetorically.

"That's an interesting, intellectual puzzle," he said.

The Open Meeting Law includes an exclusion involving members of boards meeting in social situations and not making any decisions, he pointed out.

There was no quorum from any board, Mulligan said.

"There's no way," she said. Besides, any board member present was there as a Town Meeting member to get information, she said.

Jeb Bobseine can be reached at 508-668-0243, ext. 13 or jeb@walpoletimes.com.