OPEN MEETING LAW COMPLAINT FORM

Office of the Attorney General

One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

Please note that all fields are required unless otherwise noted.

Your Contact Information:

First Name: Steven Last Name: Ballard

Address: Law Offices of Steven Ballard, 354 Washington Street, Suite 323

City: Wellesley State: MA Zip Code: 02481

Phone Number: 7815912750 Ext.

Email: sballard@stevenballard.com

Organization or Media Affiliation (if any):

Are you filing the complaint in your capacity as an individual, representative of an organization, or media?
(For statistical purposes only)

Individual Organization Media

Public Body that is the subject of this complaint:

City/Town County Regional/District State

Name of Public Body (including city/ Board of Selectmen, Acton, Massachusetts

town, county or region, if applicable):

Specific person(s), if any, you allege Janet Adachi, Jon Benson

committed the violation:

Date of alleged violation: June 28, 2018

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Description of alleged violation:
Describe the alleged violation that this complaint is about. If you believe the alleged violation was intentional, please say so and include
the reasons supporting your belief.

Note: This text field has a maximum of 3000 characters.

The Acton Board of Selectmen (Board), and especially members Janet Adachi and Jon Benson, violated the Open Meeting Law
(OML) at the meeting of the Acton Leadership Group (ALG) on June 28, 2018 (Jun. 28 meeting) as evidenced by the approved
minutes (Jun. 28 minutes) which were approved at the ALG's September 27, 2018 meeting (Sep. 27 meeting) but which are still
not, as of today, posted on the Town of Acton's website with the other meeting minutes (including the Sep. 27 meeting
minutes themselves). [Further note related to date of reasonable discovery: The Jun. 28 minutes at this point, appear only to
be indirectly available on the website of the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee (School Committee) specifically as
they appear in the meeting packet for the Oct. 4, 2018 School Committee meeting. Complainant was only able to discover the
Jun. 28 minutes on Oct. 7, 2018, by chance, when he saw the School Committee packet. He could not possibly be expected to
have discovered the Jun. 28 minutes, and thus the violations evidenced by them, until then, as they had only been posted a few
days prior to the Oct. 4 School Committee meeting.]

The Board violated the OML at the Jun. 28 meeting of the ALG by appearing in a quorum (four of five members present),
including the two Board members also members of the ALG and two others designated in the minutes as "audience," without
having first noticed a meeting of the Board, without calling the Board's quorum to order in a meeting, or without requiring its
two non-ALG-members, Attorneys Jon Benson and Janet Adachi (reported as "Audience: Janet Adachi and Jon Benson, BoS") to
immediately disperse to defeat a quorum. Instead, the June 28 minutes reflect that these two members attended the entire
meeting with their two colleagues who were appropriately present as members of the ALG. This attendance in the "audience”
does not fall within any of the enumerated exceptions to the rule that a quorum of a public body should not meet outside a
duly noticed meeting.

What action do you want the public body to take in response to your complaint?
Note: This text field has a maximum of 500 characters.

The Board members, both being attorneys and members of public boards in Acton for many years, should
each pay a $1,000.00 fine for what must be considered intentional violations, with such fines perhaps used
as donations to pay for Open Meeting Law training by the entire Board. The Board, and particularly these
members, should also apologize to the Town of Acton.

Review, sign, and submit your complaint

I. Disclosure of Your Complaint.
Public Record. Under most circumstances, your complaint, and any documents submitted with your complaint, is considered a public record
and will be available to any member of the public upon request.

Publication to Website. As part of the Open Data Initiative, the AGO will publish to its website certain information regarding your complaint,
including your name and the name of the public body. The AGO will not publish your contact information.

II. Consulting With a Private Attorney.

The AGO cannot give you legal advice and is not able to be your private attorney, but represents the public interest. If you have any questions
concerning your individual legal rights or responsibilities you should contact a private attorney.

III. Submit Your Complaint to the Public Body.

The complaint must be filed first with the public body. If you have any questions, please contact the Division of Open Government by calling
(617) 963-2540 or by email to openmeeting@state.ma.us.

By signing below, I acknowledge that I have read and understood the provisions above and certify that the information I have provided is true
and correct to the best of my knowledge.
October 31, 2018
Signed: ___________________________________________ Date:____________________________
For Use By Public Body For Use By AGO
Date Received by Public Body: Date Received by AGO:
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