Finance Committee Says No Open Meeting Violation

The Rehoboth Finance Committee has disavowed an open meeting law complaint filed by Katherine Cooper, the chair of the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee.

In her December 27 complaint to the state’s attorney general, Cooper said three out of the five members of the finance committee attended a meeting for the regional school district on December 16. “They discussed town finances and upcoming projects in a quorum without the proper posting. The meeting was a Superintendent Advisory meeting,” Cooper stated.

The members were finance committee chairman Michael Deignan, George Solas, who is also a member of the school committee, and Susan McBride.

Cooper had also filed a similar complaint against the town’s board of selectmen.

Finance committee chairman Michael Deignan said the committee met on January 3 and “unanimously agreed there was no violation.”

“A quorum of Finance Committee members were not deliberating in the meeting referenced by Mrs. Cooper. Mrs. McBride and Mr. Solas participated in the meeting,” Deignan explained. “I watched the meeting from the audience and at no time had any interaction with the meeting (I did not address the meeting, answer questions, comment, or otherwise engage with the meeting, nor was I recognized by the Chairman of the meeting at any point). The only person I interacted with during the meeting was another woman in the audience who asked if I could identify a speaker for her.”

“Open Meeting Law does not prohibit a quorum of a public body from being physically present at the same location at the same time,” Deignan noted. “There was no deliberation on subject matter under the Finance Committee's jurisdiction by a quorum of Finance Committee members at this meeting. My attendance as a member of the public in the audience was the equivalent of watching the meeting from home on Rehoboth TV, had it been broadcast. Open Meeting Law does not prohibit public officials from watching meetings of other public bodies.”

Meanwhile, the board of selectmen have filed a complaint alleging the school committee violated open meeting law when they scheduled a district-wide “Tent” meeting on November 2.


Cooper dismissed the selectmen’s complaint, noting they were “wasting more taxpayers’ money on lawyers arguing about a meeting that never even happened.”