By Kelly Morgan,Staff Writer

PARIS – Nearly 25 local officials took the time to learn more about public right-to-know laws at a special meeting Tuesday.

Selectmen from Norway, Paris, Oxford and Otisfield were among those on hand at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School for a presentation on the Maine Freedom of Access Act.

The law, as Maine Municipal Association lawyer Michael Stultz explained, guarantees the public’s right to access for most meetings and records of state and local government officials.

Selectmen often run into questions about what meetings should be held in public or behind closed doors in executive session. Stultz explained that there are few circumstances where the public should not be allowed to observe or even record a meeting.

“If it’s a government-sponsored activity and it’s a meeting, it’s generally considered a public proceeding,” he said.

Generally, executive sessions should not be allowed, unless government bodies need to discuss personnel matters that could damage an employee’s reputation or privacy, talk about real estate or economic development negotiations that could be jeopardized before a transaction, or discuss active legal matters, Stultz said.

Before going into an executive session, boards must cite the specific reasons and section of the law that permits the executive session, and vote on holding the closed session, he said.

Stultz warned that selectmen shouldn’t create “closed-meeting” situations; that could happen by making decisions while communicating over the phone, or discussing town business outside of a public meeting held with proper notice.

He also said that e-mail communication about town business, even if stored on a public official’s private computer, is considered public information.

Access to all public documents, Stultz said, may be requested by any member of the public, even if the person isn’t a resident of the town. He noted that towns may charge a reasonable fee to furnish copies of documents.

Norway Town Manager David Holt said his town is dealing with a situation in which two individuals embroiled in a property dispute have taken out protection-from-abuse or harassment orders. While by law they aren’t allowed within a certain distance of one another, Holt said, the town has learned it cannot prevent the two men from simultaneously attending public meetings where their properties will be discussed.

Instead, the town will have to pay for a policeman to attend the meetings, he said.

“What I’m trying to say is, it’s a pretty sacred law,” Holt said, noting that the Freedom of Access Act may even take precedence over a police matter.

“If it’s a government-sponsored activity and it’s a meeting, it’s generally considered a public proceeding.”
Michael Stultz, Maine Municipal Association lawyer