DA's office is again eyeing open-meeting law complaint
For the third time this year, the Norfolk district attorney's office is looking into whether Needham town officials violated the state's open meeting laws.
The latest inquiry was prompted by a complaint filed with the DA's office last Tuesday by Alan Fanger, a Town Meeting member who is a lawyer. In his complaint, Fanger alleges the Board of Selectmen improperly conducted private meetings to discuss matters related to the Needham Golf Club and its lease of 45 acres of town land.
Fanger said he believes the board inappropriately used the closed sessions to talk about matters that should have been aired in public, including amending bylaws to permit leases of longer than 10 years and laying the groundwork for a lease extension.
"What's been going on over the last two years is there have been a series of secret negotiations or discussions between the selectmen and officials from the golf club," said Fanger. "Notwithstanding their denials, they've been involved in an active dialogue."
Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick said Fanger's allegation is unfounded. "There have been no formal negotiations with the golf club or deliberations" about a new lease, said Fitzpatrick, who had not yet seen Fanger's complaint nor received the DA's query letter.
As town manager, Fitzpatrick has negotiating authority over all town property leases and purchases, in coordination with the selectmen.
Fanger has been a vocal critic of the lease to the private, nonprofit golf club, questioning whether the land could serve a better municipal use.
Fanger said he was alarmed after learning from town documents that the board went into executive session 53 times since Jan. 1, 2004, on the grounds that it was negotiating a lease or purchase of property. Of those meetings, 25 concerned only leases, according to Fitzpatrick.
Property negotiations can be conducted in closed session, under the state's open meeting law. Executive sessions are also allowed for discussing litigation, collective bargaining agreements, and employee disciplinary issues.
In response to his public records request, Fitzpatrick last week gave Fanger copies of the minutes from three closed sessions.
She cited "ongoing negotiations" for declining to provide copies of the other sessions when leases were discussed, including six held since June. "None of those 22 involve the golf club," the manager said.
According to the minutes:
On May 25, 2004, Selectman Daniel Matthews suggested starting talks about renewing the golf club lease rather than wait until "the 11th hour" and the board discussed ways to extend lease period.
On Oct. 26, 2004, selectmen talked about preparing for either the "early renegotiation" of the lease or its termination in 2009; they also talked about whether to propose at the May 2005 Town Meeting revising the bylaws to allow longer leases.
On Dec. 6, 2004, the board again discussed whether to change the bylaw.
As it turned out, the bylaw revision was never formally raised.
In a Nov. 28 letter to selectmen, Assistant District Attorney Tracey A. Cusick writes that talk of changing the town bylaws "does not appear to fit within the exemption" to the open meeting law.
Cusick asked the board to clarify why the issue wasn't discussed in open session and to turn over the dates of all executive sessions at which the golf club lease was addressed since Jan. 1, 2004.
She also requested that the board name everyone who attended those closed meetings and to disclose whether the golf club lease came up at any of the 22 meetings for which the town did not provide Fanger minutes.
Fanger questioned what lease matter could have prompted so many closed-door sessions.
"I'm not aware of any [other] lease relationship the town has that would lend itself to a negotiation," said Fanger. The last lease issue before the town was the Needham Historical Society relocating to a site at the Newman Elementary School in 2003, he said.
"Why would they be going forward with a bylaw amendment if they weren't going ahead with a new lease?" said Fanger.
"They want us to believe they haven't even had those kind of discussions and it's less than two years before the lease expires," said Fanger. "I just don't think that's credible."
Earlier this year, Fanger said he believed a working group of town officials looking into where to locate municipal buildings deliberately avoided considering the golf club land although a consultant said it would be suitable for a middle school, senior center, or athletic fields.
He's also questioned the propriety of allowing golf club members, or those with family ties to the club, to sit on the working group and field study committee.
The other two open meeting complaints against the town involve the School Committee.
In late October, the DA looked into a complaint by a Newman parent that the School Committee had violated the law by holding private, serial conversations with the selectmen about the plan for a new middle school. Fitzpatrick said the committee has responded to the DA, but the matter remains open.
In July the DA's office found the School Committee violated the open meeting law in a series of e-mails between members in which they shared opinions about an upcoming middle school vote.
Christina Pazzanese can be reached at cpazzanese@globe.com. 
