Fall River Redevelopment Authority meets over open meeting complaints

The Fall River Redevelopment Authority has received a half-dozen open meeting violation complaints as the fallout continues over a meeting two weeks ago where the members voted to terminate a management contract with the former Fall River Office of Economic Development.

FALL RIVER — The Fall River Redevelopment Authority has received a half-dozen open meeting violation complaints as the fallout continues over a meeting two weeks ago where the members voted to terminate a management contract with the former Fall River Office of Economic Development.

On Wednesday, the RDA held another meeting this time to exclusively discuss how to respond to the complaints in executive session that include one lodged by The Herald News.

Before voting 4-1 to move into executive session where it adjourned, RDA member Bob Smith questioned why the authority wouldn’t discuss the issue publicly, saying he did not know what the was the protocol.

Chairwoman Kara O’Connell said the authority has always discussed pending open records complaints in executive session. The authority’s attorney, John Coughlin, said that they are allowed to move to executive session in order to discuss their legal options regarding what they to do and how to respond to the complainants.

Open meetings complaints are covered by state law and enforced by the Attorney General’s office.

According to the law, if the complaining party and the public body cannot agree on a remedy, the Attorney General makes a determination if any open meeting laws were violated and whether it was intentional.

If an open meeting violation is found, then the Attorney General has seven avenues of recourse that include nullifying a public body’s action or impose a penalty of not more than a $1,000 fine if the violation was intentional.

“It just seems like a minor issue and the penalties are so minor that if we made a mistake we acknowledge it and we own it,” said Smith. “I don’t think we did, but I don’t see why we need to go into executive session.”

Member Joseph Oliveira didn’t agree.

“I was going to make a statement that we need to be careful how we handle ourselves,” said Oliveira, acknowledging the number of complaints received. “I believe the complaints were due to how the Nov. 16 meeting was handled.”

In addition to a complaint from The Herald News, the RDA received complaints from city residents Collin Dias, Patrick Higgins, David Oliveira and City Councilor Shawn Cadime. A reporter from the local radio station, WSAR, handed a complaint to Coughlin before the meeting.

In its complaint, The Herald News cites three violations to the state open meetings law, that includes at least two members never taking a verbal vote, they took the action to terminate the contract without it being posted in the meeting agenda and members of the audience, which were jeering and shouting, did not conduct appropriate behavior which is cited in the open meeting regulations.

Information on the results of the executive session to Coughlin is pending.

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com