The new Open Meeting Law, which took effect July 1, has created some extra work for town boards (as reported by Joe Hutchinson in the Sept. 17 issue of the Press) and has apparently created some confusion about what meetings are considered open. A resident attending this week’s Board of Selectmen meeting asked if the “informal working group” organized by Selectman Bill Johnson to craft a new approach to budgeting had to adhere to the tenets of the Open Meeting Law. Town Administrator Tim Bragan responded that it didn’t, because it wasn’t a “constituted” board.

However, the way we read it, any and all boards, subcommittees, and workgroups fall under the new law, which applies to “public bodies.” Section 18 of the law, set forth in Chapter 30A of Mass. General Laws, defines a “public body” as:

“a multiple-member board, commission, committee or subcommittee within…any county, district, city, region or town, however created, elected, appointed or otherwise constituted, established to serve a public purpose…provided further, that a subcommittee shall include any multiple-member body created to advise or make recommendations to a public body.” (emphasis ours)

We think town officials and town boards need to revisit the fine print in the new law.