"There they go AGAIN"

Northwestern District Attorney
Elizabeth Scheibel
One Gleason Plaza
Northampton, Ma 01060
3/21/2007

Amherst Open Meeting Law Complaint

I wish to file a formal complaint about the abuse of Executive Session by the Amherst Select board in general (as in overuse) and in particular their most recent 3/19/07 meeting where they adjourned into Executive Session without first giving a reason justify it or announcing if they would return to Open Session.

According to Chapter 39: Section 23-B: “…the presiding officer has cited the purpose for an executive session, and the presiding officer has stated before the executive session if the governmental body will reconvene after the executive session.”

If you analyze a year’s worth meetings I think you will find the Amherst Select board is a statistical outlier in their use of Executive Session when compared with Executive Branch boards in comparable--or even larger--cities and towns.

Sincerely Yours,



Larry Kelley