SCTS accused of violating state Open Meeting Law

SAUGUS – The board of directors of the selectmen-run Saugus Community Television Station (SCTS) is facing allegations of violating the state’s Open Meeting Law on two occasions in July.Tom Lucey, secretary of the nonprofit Saugus Community Television (SCTV) Board of Directors, filed two complaints on Aug. 10 with the town clerk’s office. Copies were sent to SCTS in addition to the state attorney general’s office. He said that the first SCTS meeting in question was held on July 14 at the SCTV studio. However, he alleges it was held without notifying Town Hall beforehand, without a written agenda and without any record of the meeting’s minutes.”They’re doing things behind closed doors that they know they shouldn’t be doing,” said Lucey.In addition, the SCTV studio is inaccessible to the disabled. Therefore, holding meetings in that location is a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.”The SCTS Board of Directors deprived members of the public their rights,” Lucey said in one complaint.He added that he only knew about the first meeting because a group of SCTV employees attended.”That was a really illegal meeting,” said Lucey. “There was nothing official about that meeting, nothing was documented.”SCTS Executive Director Bryan Nadeau declined to comment.Lucey explained that although his board has used the same studio for its meetings, SCTV is a nonprofit organization, separate from the town’s government. Therefore it is not required to meet in a building accessible to the disabled.In contrast, Lucey pointed out that SCTS is a town board and, as such, mandated by law to meet in a building accessible to the disabled.He said that the second meeting, on July 30, was posted and the minutes were recorded. However, the SCTS still met in the SCTV studio, prompting Lucey to file a second complaint.Lucey explained that SCTS now has seven business days to respond to the complaints, while the attorney general’s office has 14 business days to respond.Moving forward, Lucey said that he only wants SCTS to conduct itself in a fair manner. Therefore, he explained that everything that was said during the July 14 meeting needs to be disclosed and any action taken during the meeting needs to be rescinded.In his first complaint, Lucey said that he wants SCTS to publicly acknowledge that it was in violation of the law. He explained that the board of directors also needs to take classes from the attorney general’s office “to ensure all SCTS board members will be in compliance with the Open Meeting Law.”