Are MHS Hiring Practices Under Investigation by State Ethics Commission?

(Editor's note: This article was updated on Monday, Aug. 16 at 11 a.m. with comments from the Attorney General's Office).

Melrose School Committee member Carrie Kourkoumelis said at last Tuesday's meeting that the state Ethics Commission is investigating hiring practices at Melrose High School, an allegation that blindsided Superintendent Joe Casey and Mayor Rob Dolan, both whom said they have no knowledge of any such investigation.

David Giannotti, the Ethics Commission's communications division chief, told Melrose Patch last week that he could not confirm whether any investigation is underway due to state laws regarding confidentiality.

"We can't confirm or deny whether the commission has received any complaints or is conducting any investigation," Giannotti said.

Kourkoumelis made the allegation during the committee's evaluation of Casey. She also repeatedly made a slew of other allegations, including:

• That the strategic plan focus group meetings were held "outside of public view in violation of Open Meeting Law."
• "Communication from and for about school site councils, except for the middle school and Lincoln School, is lacking to the point of violating Open Meeting Law."

• "A Melrose High School staff member was sanctioned recently for unprofessional conduct" and "members of the guidance department have been caught behaving unprofessionally on social networking sites."

After Kourkoumelis stated for the second time during the evaluation that the Melrose High School's hiring practices are "under a cloud of investigation," Casey — who had not responded to the allegations earlier in the meeting — denied the existence of an ongoing investigation and questioned Kourkoumelis unloading her list of allegations.

"I really have to take umbrage, if you don't mind, with the idea that there is an ethics violation in the hiring practices (at MHS)," Casey said. "You're throwing a lot of stuff around. I can't discuss personnel issues in public (regarding sanctions of MHS staff members). You're making allegations and painting with a very broad brush. Maybe you see it that way, but I really vehemently disagree in a lot of areas and how you're putting that out."

Kourkoumelis responded, "I'm not here to argue points and prepared to back up with facts."

Dolan said to Kourkoumelis that "you have a right to your opinion," but said that in previous state Ethics Commission inquiries in Melrose, "When you're being investigated a formal letter is sent to the superintendent, mayor's office and the city solicitor. I have not received that (letter)."

"I have been contacted (by the state)," Kourkoumelis replied. "I'm not here to argue."

Dolan also noted that if a personnel issue is brought up in a public forum, the individual in question must be given the right to be told that the issue would be brought up publicly and given the chance for representation. Kourkoumelis responded that she had not used anyone's name.

Would city and school officials have been notified of an investigation?

In response to an e-mail and phone call from Melrose Patch seeking further comment after the meeting, Kourkoumelis wrote in an e-mail that "I was contacted last week about a matter that was opened in the spring. Apparently their process is a lengthy one. The Ethics Commission does not disclose any of the particulars, nor can I except to say that there was a letter sent to the entire MHS faculty from a retiring teacher ... it is my understanding that the Ethics Commission does not as a matter of course notify officials such as the mayor or superintendent unless their testimony is required for the investigation."

Asked if MHS Principal Joe Dillon, Casey or Dolan would have been notified about an ongoing investigation into MHS hiring practices, Giannotti said individuals would be contacted if the state Ethics Commission needed information from those people, whether through an interview or to request documents.

"It doesn't follow any kind of formula," he said. "There are no required notifications of witnesses or potential witnesses or what have you, or protocols to follow. Say we wanted to talk to a teacher. We're not required to go through the principal to talk to a teacher. Because of confidentiality, we probably don't want to alert (the people being investigated)."

Melrose City Solicitor Rob Van Campen said last week that he met with Casey, who reiterated that neither he nor Dillon are aware of an ongoing investigation.

"It appears that that Ms. Kourkoumelis is the only individual presently who is aware of this 'investigation,'" Van Campen said. "I'm not aware and the mayor and superintendent haven't been contacted by anyone at the state Ethics Commission to discuss this matter. No member of the administration on the school side has been contacted to discuss it."

Van Campen called the state Ethics Commission and heard back from a staff attorney who told him that she did not have any knowledge of an investigation.

"But, as you can imagine, they're very covert about sharing information with folks unless they're actually part of the investigation," he said. "She (the staff attorney) had no knowledge that there was an ongoing investigation and she wasn't aware of anything."

Van Campen added that he placed a call to a person in the state Ethics Commission's investigative unit who was on vacation last week to try and confirm whether there is or there is not an investigation.

Strategic plan focus group violated Open Meeting Law?

With regard to her statements at the meeting that the strategic plan focus groups and school site councils were violating Open Meeting Law (OML), Kourkoumelis wrote in an e-mail to Melrose Patch, "Some of those references were to matters that I (as a volunteer citizen on the school committee who is not an attorney) believe are possible violations of district policies and some of state laws (e.g., school councils, OML, etc.)."

Kourkoumelis specifically cited in her e-mail the Elected Officials focus group meeting, which sought feedback from city officials on the strategic plan.

"The Focus Group meeting in question involved every elected official (more than just a quorum)," she wrote. "I asked the (assistant) district attorney, Mr. Robert Bender, about this meeting at that time and he stated that it 'quacked like a duck,' and it was therefore, in his estimation, a public meeting, requiring full compliance with the OML."

A call to the Middlesex District Attorney's office seeking comment from Bender was referred to the state Attorney General's office, which now enforces the OML as of July 1. On Monday, Attorney General spokeswoman Jill Butterworth said her office could not provide an opinion without a formal OML complaint.

"We can't really comment on something that could be before us eventually," Butterworth said. "We don't have any complaints on file from this particular matter, or from any public bodies in Melrose. That's not just something we can do at this time ... there are too many factors involved. We want to make sure we have all the facts before us."

Butterworth provided Melrose Patch with the Open Meeting Law's definition of "meeting" as "a deliberation by a public body with respect to any matter within the body's jurisdiction; provided, however, 'meeting' shall not include:"

• an on-site inspection of a project or program, so long as the members do not deliberate;
• attendance by a quorum of a public body at a public or private gathering, including a conference or training program or a media, social or other event, so long as the members do not deliberate;
• attendance by a quorum of a public body at a meeting of another public body that has complied with the notice requirements of the open meeting law, so long as the visiting members communicate only by open participation in the meeting on those matters under discussion by the host body and do not deliberate;
• a meeting of a quasi­-judicial board or commission held for the sole purpose of making a decision required in an adjudicatory proceeding brought before it; or
• a session of a town meeting convened under section 10 of chapter 39 which would include the attendance by a quorum of a public body at any such session.

"Deliberation" is defined within the OML as an oral or written communication through any medium, including e-mail, between or among a quorum of a public body on any public business within its jurisdiction.

According to Casey's records, Melrose Board of Aldermen members Don Conn, Ron Seaboyer, John Tramontozzi, Gail Infurna, Monica Medeiros and William Forbes, and School Committee members Kourkoumelis, Chris Casatelli, Don Constantine and J.D. LaRock attended the Elected Officials focus group meeting.

Casey said last week that the focus group meetings were not publicly posted under the recommendation of Future Management Systems, Inc., which the district hired for $15,000 last September to develop the strategic plan.

"I believe since they've been doing this for quite some time, if there was an issue prior to this, that would have been brought up," he said. "I've brought people in for focus groups from time to time and we've never had to do that in the past. That's something I'll have to look into it. I'm not aware that is (a violation of OML), but I'll be happy to look into it."

Van Campen said he had not received any notification, whether from the Attorney General's Office or the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, that there were complaints of Open Meeting Law violations.

"This is the first I heard of that," he said.

Known problems with school site councils

In her e-mail, Kourkoumelis said some principals have been "meticulous" in their posting notice of school site council meetings — Lincoln School Principal Brent Conway and middle school Principal Tom Brown in particular — but in other cases, meetings were held that were not listed in the City Clerk's file.

"There are missing minutes, the balanced makeup of councils as required by state law is not being observed by some of the schools, among other things," she wrote.

Van Campen again said he was not aware of any complaint of Open Meeting Law violation with regard to school site council.

However, problems with school site council meetings are known to the district. Casey said in the spring, a review showed that not all school site councils were handling meetings the same way. To that end, Casey has a group of school officials and members of the public meeting on Sept. 16 to discuss how to standardize the school site council process and the school improvement plans that those councils develop each year.

"This is something we've been talking about for quite some time," he said. "We're talking about it to go forward and address any issues that have been in the past. I don't know if necessarily was in violation of Open Meeting Law, but short answer is we have a working group coming together."

Sanctioned MHS staff members?

With regard to Kourkoumelis' statements that "a Melrose High School staff member was sanctioned recently for unprofessional conduct" and "members of the guidance department have been caught behaving unprofessionally on social networking sites," both Van Campen and Casey said that they do not comment on personnel matters.

Casey said, "I can't comment on anything that touches on a personnel matter. Ms. Kourkoumelis I'm sure knew that, or knows it after I spoke about that (at the meeting) ... it's a personnel matter and we treat all matters as they deserve to be treated."