July 23, 2008
Fosters
Portsmouth resident sues school panel over right to know: Says board didn’t file minutes from May work session
PORTSMOUTH — A local resident filed suit last month against the city School Board citing a violation of the state’s Right-to-Know law.
The petition for injunctive relief filed by Thomas Morgan on June 20, argues that the board was in violation of RSA 91-A when it did not draft minutes from a May 20 work session.
The meeting was a discussion about the proposed core student size for a new middle school. No action was taken at the meeting.
The meeting was posted appropriately and videotaped. Although the video was posted online, this does not meet the Right-to-Know requirement.
Assistant City Attorney Kathleen Dwyer said she has filed a response to the petition, in which the School Board concedes that minutes should have been taken and were not.
“There was never any intention to do anything in secret,” Dwyer said.
A variety of people have been taking minutes at board meetings since the death earlier this year of Patty Wojnar, the superintendent’s secretary.
“For a variety of reasons no minutes were kept … a variety of people have been going in and doing they best they could,” Dwyer said.
In his petition, Morgan said he was told by the superintendent’s secretary, Amy Noble, the School Board did not consider the May 20 gathering to be a meeting, hence no minutes were ever drafted, nor will they be drafted in the future.
Dwyer said Noble was misquoted and has said that she couldn’t have said those things because she was not familiar with the process and was not taking meeting minutes herself at the time, only having been on the job for 10 days on May 20.
“We are not disputing the facts of the case … we are disputing the characterization of the intent,” Dwyer said. “None of this was purposeful and minutes have been produced which is the subject of the case.”
Morgan is petitioning the court to order the School Board to prepare minutes for the meeting and minutes of all other School Board meetings since 2005. He is also requesting School Board members be ordered to attend and successfully complete a seminar on New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know law by the New Hampshire Local Government Center.
In addition, he would like the court to require the School Board to hold all future meetings in Council Chambers at City Hall so they can be televised, refrain from violating RSA 91-A, post minutes on the city’s website no later than five business days after a meeting and award his costs incurred in the matter, including from individual School Board members.
Dwyer said minutes of the May 20 meeting have already been produced and procedures have been corrected.
“We didn’t (take minutes) and we should have, but that certainly doesn’t warrant the award of any penalties from the School Department,” Dwyer said.
She added that some of the relief Morgan is requesting is not mandated under the Right-to-Know law. The law does not require that all meetings be televised or that minutes be posted to a website, only that they be made available to the public within a certain time frame.
The School Board has a long history of holding meetings at individual schools throughout the year, which Dwyer said has community value.
“It is not something they are inclined to want to change and take out the connection to school communities,” Dwyer said.
In addition, the taking of minutes is an administrative function, not an elected official’s function so financial relief from board members is not warranted.
Dwyer said it is their position that Morgan is not entitled to attorney’s fees, as he is representing himself in the case, and has not incurred any such fees.
At the beginning of every new School Board cycle when new members are elected, they go through an orientation process and are exposed to the Right-to-Know law, but it would not necessarily focus on minutes because it is an administrative duty, Dwyer said.
Dwyer said Noble met with City Clerk Kelly Barnaby on Tuesday to get some one-on-one training on meeting minutes and will start taking them at meetings herself as of Aug. 5.
“Our position is that (Morgan) did a community service by pointing out we should be taking minutes … we corrected the procedures,” Dwyer said.
Morgan on Tuesday night said frustration led him to file the petition. He said his request for the May 20 minutes marks the fourth time in three years his request for minutes has not been granted. He added he believes the School Board should televise all of its meetings to avoid the issue in the future.
A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Monday at Rockingham County Superior Court.