The Hamilton-Wenham Regional School Committee acknowledged last night that it violated the Open Meeting Law repeatedly this spring.
The admission comes as a result of a complaint filed by a resident, and less than a year after the committee received training on the Open Meeting Law.
Eight or nine members of the School Committee — more than the group's quorum of five — attended six finance working group meetings in March and April and actively participated in discussions on the school budget.
The meetings, on March 1, 10, 17, 24, 30 and April 4, were posted as subcommittee meetings, which should have less than a quorum of committee members involved in discussion.
"It was an honest mistake," said Naomi Stonberg, the School Committee's attorney. "Once they realized they had made the mistake, they corrected it right away. ... This isn't going to happen again."
Hamilton resident George LaMontagne said he attended all six subcommittee meetings, in which eight or nine School Committee members sat together at the same table, deliberated and took straw votes on budget issues.
School Committee subcommittee meetings are not televised.
"When they got to the actual School Committee meeting, and when it came to the budget process, it was all rehearsed," LaMontagne said. "Those meetings should have been held as a full School Committee meeting, in public purview, where the public could have heard everything they said."
LaMontagne gave an Open Meeting Law complaint to School Committee Chairwoman Alexa McCloughan on April 18, and she gave it Stonberg.
On April 27, Stonberg wrote to LaMontagne and acknowledged the School Committee violated the Open Meeting Law when the full committee attended and participated in the six working-group sessions.
"The School Committee regrets this error," Stonberg wrote, and going forward the committee will post any meeting where a quorum of members are participating as a meeting of the full committee, not a subcommittee.
"I represent a lot of School Committees, and this is a fairly common mistake where a subcommittee meets and (members) show up," Stonberg said yesterday.
However, committee members can attend a meeting without participating — sitting in the audience purely as spectators — and it is not considered a quorum, Stonberg said. She acknowledged this was not the case in the six subcommittee meetings in March and April.
McCloughan read Stonberg's letter to LaMontagne aloud at last night's School Committee meeting. She acknowledged the six violations but emphasized the sessions were open to the public and had "active public participation."
Although LaMontagne is a member of the anti-override citizens group Enough is Enough, he said he filed the complaint as an individual.
"I'm just looking for them (the School Committee) to do the right thing," LaMontagne said. "I just want them to start doing things appropriately and, going forward, be in compliance with the law."
The School Committee received training on the Open Meeting Law in July 2010, and Stonberg said the committee will have additional training this summer.
In her letter, Stonberg also noted the committee's finance working group minutes "are very brief and should contain more information." The School Committee has pledged to make the minutes more detailed, she said.
In cases of Open Meeting Law violations, the attorney general's office can intervene. Stonberg said yesterday that she believes that won't happen in the Hamilton-Wenham situation.
"I believe we've resolved all the issues," she said.
Staff writer Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on Twitter @SNewsBethany.
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