Politics & Government

Resident Who Filed OML Complaint Responds to Decision

The decision was issued on Nov. 25.

Wayland resident Kim Reichelt, who filed the Open Meeting Law complaint against selectmen alleging they broke the law in firing former town administrator Fred Turkington, is hoping residents learn a few lessons from the recent controversy.

"What I hope residents will take away from all this is that elections have consequences.Pay attention, get engaged. Most importantly, you have to show up and vote," Reichelt said in a statement to Wayland Patch.

Reichelt filed her complaint in September alleging selectmen broke the Open Meeting Law by discussing terminating Turkington outside of a public meeting and that the meeting notice was not specific enough to tell residents they would discuss firing Turkington.

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has ruled the selectmen broke the law with the vague meeting notice. However, there was no evidence to support Reichelt's claim that selectmen discussed firing Turkington outside of a meeting. 

"I'm pleased that the Attorney General's Office found a violation, and that they recognized the poor practices that were employed by the chair and majority selectmen and that some of the behavior was intentional," Reichelt said. 

Reichelt added: "I felt the decision could have gone further. They clearly recognized there were irregularities in behavior and inconsistencies in the responses they got from the majority Selectmen. They were not given the hard evidence that they felt they needed to find that all the violations occurred."

In Reichelt's view, the AG's decision is troubling. 

"This decision does not in any way exonerate their bad behavior.  I encourage people to carefully read the decision. There's really nothing in there for the three majority selectmen to be proud of," she said. 


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