The case that just won't die: Judge sets May 25 hearing for Open Meeting complaint against City Council

By adamg on Tue, 04/19/2011 - 6:00pm

UPDATE: The date has been changed to May 25.

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today set the hearing date for a lawsuit first filed in 2005 by three residents against the Boston City Council - on both their original complaint and new allegations that the City Council continues to evade the Open Meeting Law.

The City Council has repeatedly come out on the short side of sometimes scathing rulings by judges in both Superior Court and Appeals Court, yet the case refuses to die.

City attorney Maribeth Cusick told Judge Elizabeth Fahey the council admits it broke the Open Meeting law during meetings with the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Boston University's biolab and asked that she only consider the council's actions since 2009 - the last time a judge ruled on the case. To do otherwise, she said, would just be dredging up incidents the council has admitted and be a waste of resources for both the city and plaintiffs Kevin McCrea, Shirley Kressel and Kathleen Devine.

Cusick said that not only had the council itself undergone "a sea change" in the way it deals with meetings but that the legislature has since shifted primary enforcement responsibilities for the law to the state attorney general's office.

But McCrea, Kressel and Devine argued the council's new-style "working sessions" on specific topics, for which they claim no minutes are kept, violate the Open Meeting Law and that the council needs some sort of injunction against it to force it to comply with the law.

Fahey said the three deserve at least a hearing. "A sea change doesn't necessarily equate to conformance with the law," she said.

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Comments

And in the interim

By anon on Tue, 04/19/2011 - 11:42pm.

Kevin has bought a house in Weston because he's so concerned about Boston. Shirley accompanied Chuck Turner on the trip to turn himself in. She's more convinced than ever that he was a most effective City Councilor.

Don't you love the anonymity and cowardliness of anon...

By kevinmccrea on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 12:38am.

I have also bought 3 more places in Boston, about 6 on the Cape, and one in New Orleans. That's what I do, I buy and sell property.

I am concerned about Boston. The corruption, the giveaways to the rich and connected, the poor education system. I am concerned about all the wars we are fighting, and about the waste of money that could be going to better use here in our country instead of wasting young lives abroad.

It's 12:31 a.m. and here I am, writing from good old west springfield street in Boston....

What's your point? Are you concerned about what is going on at my neighborhood school the Blackstone where many of the kids I coach in South End Youth Baseball go?

Does it bother you that the City spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money fighting an $11,000 fine to protect city councilors rights to go behind closed doors with the BRA and figure out their deals?

It bothers me, whether I'm in Boston, the Cape, or Uganda. It is wrong, and it is too bad that you don't think so.

Yes!

By AKMcDonough on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 9:08am.

Keep it coming Kevin!!

I for one am grateful to

By Therese on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 10:08am.

I for one am grateful to these three residents. I am so tired of elected officials making deals behind closed doors which are detrimental to our neighborhoods. Let's put the "public" back in "public service" - we have a right to know what is going on.