LYNN — State Attorney General Maura Healey’s office has determined that the Lynn City Council has violated the open meeting law.
Assistant Attorney General KerryAnne Kilcoyne said the determination was made based on two open meeting law complaints a resident, Joanne Lindner, filed against the City Council, according to a letter she wrote to James Lamanna, Lynn’s assistant city solicitor on March 30.
Lindner’s initial complaint alleged that the City Council failed to post a notice for its Dec. 3, 2019 meeting on the city’s website or allow public participation during that meeting, Kilcoyne wrote.
Her subsequent complaint alleged that the council “failed to properly respond to a prior Open Meeting Law complaint,” dated Dec. 5, within 14 business days, as required by state law, Kilcoyne wrote.
According to Kilcoyne, the Council did not respond to that complaint until Jan. 27, or 34 business days after it was filed. In addition, she wrote the Council has failed to respond to the subsequent complaint that was filed with the attorney general’s office on March 6.
The second complaint was originally filed with the council on Feb. 3, which meant 23 business days had already passed when it reached the attorney general’s office, Kilcoyne wrote.
“(We) note our concern that the Council has now twice failed to respond to a complaint within the timeframe required by the Open Meeting Law,” Kilcoyne wrote. “We find that the Council violated the Open Meeting Law by failing to respond to an Open Meeting Law complaint within 14 business days.
“We order immediate and future compliance with the law’s requirements, and we caution that similar violations could be considered evidence of intent to violate the law.”
Kilcoyne noted that “further intentional violations,” as far as failing to respond in a timely manner could result in her office recommending a civil penalty.
