City Meeting Agendas Available 24/7 At Fire Department

Agendas for all Melrose city boards, commissions and committees will be available for the public to view 24 hours a day at the dispatch desk in the Melrose Fire Department's Main Street headquarters, a move designed to comply — at least in the short-term — with the state's new Open Meeting Law that became effective July 1.

Melrose City Solicitor Rob Van Campen said in addition to the three-ring binder containing all agendas at the Fire Department, agendas will be posted on the city website, as is already the current practice for Board of Aldermen agendas, and continue to be posted inside City Hall.

The new Open Meeting Law states that for local government bodies, notices filed with the City Clerk's office must not only be posted "in a manner conspicuously visible to the public at all hours," but that those notices must be posted "in or on the municipal building in which the clerk's office is located."

Van Campen said that second clause presented a problem for city officials, resulting in the interim method of making the notices available at the Fire Department.

"Unfortunately, that's not possible right now for Melrose City Hall, unless we do some sort of improvement, such as a case or computer monitor facing out and visible outside," he said. "The alternative was to post them on a website and simultaneously allow the public to view all notices in another building. That's the alternative method we're employing right now. Because the (Attorney General) hasn't even issued final regulations yet, these are subject to change."

Several other communities are using similar alternatives to comply with the new law in the interim, including Marblehead, Belmont, Brookline, Lexington and Needham.

Notices had to be posted at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting under the previous law; the new law tweaks that by eliminating Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays as counting toward that 48-hour requirement.

For example, a Board of Aldermen meeting scheduled for Monday at 7:30 p.m. now must have a notice posted no later than the preceding Thursday at 7:30 p.m., assuming there isn't a holiday, Van Campen said.

Notices must also include a list of topics "that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting," the law reads.

"You can't only put a date, time and place (on the notice)," Van Campen said. "That shouldn't be a dramatic change for most (Melrose) boards and commissions."

Another addition under the new Open Meeting Law, Van Campen added, is that minutes of each meeting have to be more detailed, specifically including any documents discussed during the meeting. Documents include exhibits, such as photographs, recordings or maps.