OPEN MEETING LAW COMPLAINT FORM

Office of the Attorney General

One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

Please note that all fields are required unless otherwise noted.

Your Contact Information:

First Name: Steven Last Name: Ballard

Address: Law Offices of Steven Ballard, 354 Washington Street, Suite 323

City: Wellesley State: MA Zip Code: 02481

Phone Number: 7815912750 Ext.

Email: sballard@stevenballard.com

Organization or Media Affiliation (if any):

Are you filing the complaint in your capacity as an individual, representative of an organization, or media?
(For statistical purposes only)

Individual Organization Media

Public Body that is the subject of this complaint:

City/Town County Regional/District State

Name of Public Body (including city/ Board of Selectmen, Town of Acton

town, county or region, if applicable):

Specific person(s), if any, you allege

committed the violation:

Date of alleged violation: October 15, 2018

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Description of alleged violation:
Describe the alleged violation that this complaint is about. If you believe the alleged violation was intentional, please say so and include
the reasons supporting your belief.

Note: This text field has a maximum of 3000 characters.

The Acton Board of Selectmen ("the Board") violated the Open Meeting Law, M.G.L. c. 30A § 25(a) and (b), by failing to timely create and
approve minutes of its public meeting (open session) of May 21, 2018. M.G.L. c. 30A, § 25(a) and (b) and 940 CMR 29.11 (2) require that: "
Minutes of all open and executive sessions shall be created and approved in a timely manner. A 'timely manner' will generally be considered
to be within the next three public body meetings or within 30 days, whichever is later, unless the public body can show good cause for further
delay. The Attorney General encourages public bodies to approve minutes at the next meeting whenever possible."

June 26, 2018 is the apparent date of the third public body meeting of the Board after its May 21, 2018 open meeting, and June 20, 2018 was
the 30th day after that May 21, 2018 meeting. The minutes for the May 21, 2018 open meeting should thus have been created and approved
at the latest by June 26, 2018. Instead, according to the now available records of the Board, there had been at least six further public open
meetings through the meeting of October 1, 2018 (not counting executive session meetings) by the Board since June 26, 2018, the latest date
on which the minutes should have been approved. It was not until the tenth regular open session of the Board, on October 15, 2018,
following that May 21, 2018 meeting, before the Board finally approved in a consent agenda the minutes of that much earlier meeting. The
Board has no good cause for this delay.

The Acton Board of Selectmen further violated the Open Meeting Law at that same open meeting on October 15, 2018, by failing to follow
proper procedure in reviewing the four Open Meeting Law Complaints on their agenda – complaints previously filed by this Complainant,
and dated 10-2-18, 10-4-18, 10-5-18 and 10-10-18. The Board violated the Open Meeting Law by not first meeting in open session to review
these complaints before delegating the task of drafting the Board's responses. Instead someone outside a public meeting, and on purported
behalf of the board, delegated already that task to town counsel in advance of their very next meeting. It is permissible to delegate the task of
responding to town counsel or another individual, but the Board must first meet in open session to do so. Instead on October 15, 2018, the
Board simply met and voted on fully completed lengthy draft letter responses, complete with exhibits, totaling 93 pages, and authorized the
Chair to sign on the Board's behalf.

What action do you want the public body to take in response to your complaint?
Note: This text field has a maximum of 500 characters.

The Board should: 1) Adopt a written policy to approve minutes of any open meeting at its immediately
following meeting, as encouraged by the AG's regulations, 2) Apologize to the town for the Board's failure
to be open, accountable and to abide by the Open Meeting Law, 3) Determine which Board members
should be deemed to have committed an intentional violation, and have each such member accept a fine
of $1,000.00 each, or volunteer to pay the legal fees of the Town related to these violations.

Review, sign, and submit your complaint

I. Disclosure of Your Complaint.
Public Record. Under most circumstances, your complaint, and any documents submitted with your complaint, is considered a public record
and will be available to any member of the public upon request.

Publication to Website. As part of the Open Data Initiative, the AGO will publish to its website certain information regarding your complaint,
including your name and the name of the public body. The AGO will not publish your contact information.

II. Consulting With a Private Attorney.

The AGO cannot give you legal advice and is not able to be your private attorney, but represents the public interest. If you have any questions
concerning your individual legal rights or responsibilities you should contact a private attorney.

III. Submit Your Complaint to the Public Body.

The complaint must be filed first with the public body. If you have any questions, please contact the Division of Open Government by calling
(617) 963-2540 or by email to openmeeting@state.ma.us.

By signing below, I acknowledge that I have read and understood the provisions above and certify that the information I have provided is true
and correct to the best of my knowledge.

Signed: ___________________________________________ Date:____________________________

October 29, 2018
For Use By Public Body For Use By AGO
Date Received by Public Body: Date Received by AGO:
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