Berkshire Eagle Headline, September 17, 2015: “Discontent in Stockbridge led to Cardillo election”

What was the discontent about a decade ago? Transparency and public comment. In her letter to the editor, Mary Hart wrote: “If people do not have a voice, then we do not have a democracy.”

Ten years later almost to the day, Select Board (SB) Chair Jamie Minacci, responding to discontent about the lack of public comment at meetings, told the Eagle that the issue would be discussed at the August 21, 2025, SB Meeting.

It was not discussed, it was addressed. There was no time for voters to express their discontent or suggest solutions. The Chair made a pronouncement “pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A, Section 20F.” She read:

• After notifying the chair of the public body, any person may record or transmit this open meeting.

• This hybrid meeting is being reported by the Town of Stockbridge.

• The names of members participating remotely will be announced.

• Any member of the public wishing to speak must first receive permission from the chair.

• The agenda items listed are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair, but not all may be discussed.

• And other topics not listed [on the agenda] may be brought up for discussion by the public body as permitted by law”

Maybe it’s the law, but it does not sound friendly or encouraging. Without making any further comment or requesting comments from the floor, the Chair asked for a motion to approve the minutes of seven previous SB meetings held over a period of (at least) 14 weeks, that is, 3 1/2 months. Unapproved, minutes cannot be made public.

It has been reported previously that the Town Administrator withholds Zoom recordings from CTSBTV although the will of the people, expressed at Town Meeting, was to record all meetings and send them to CTSBTV as another way for voters to tune in and find out what’s going on.

So here’s where we are:

We can speak with permission of a Chair who has not permitted any public comments at meetings, or when permitted, limited the time to speak to 2 minutes. If attending by Zoom, images of attendees are blocked — we cannot see one another. We can find out what’s happening by attending meetings in person, but sadly, dates and times of all meetings are not being listed.

A couple of questions:

Are we better off with citizen involvement or better off ruled by those who believe citizen involvement wastes time and interferes with good government?

What are the outcomes when citizens can speak freely and be part of the process or when they cannot?

Consider this:

The least transparent process in the last more than ten years was the Rest of River which was the group appointed to negotiate a contract with GE regarding the PCB cleanup. Each of five towns had one representative and the group had one lawyer. Lenox and Lee received $25,000,000 from GE and Stockbridge received $1,500,000. We all know three things: $1.5million is way less than $25million; none of us know why we received less, and none of us had a voice in the process. Charlie Kenny and Denny Alsop posed questions at Town Meeting, and Patrick White posed questions at the SB meetings. No answers were given. The reason given was that there was ongoing litigation. Wait, that is a fourth thing no one knows about: in what ongoing litigation was Stockbridge involved?

Another question: there’s an egg shape painted on the pavement at the intersection of Main and South Streets. Why? How does it work? What relationship does it have to our safety? Don’t know? Why not? We paid for it. Why is it flat not raised? What happened to the money we voted to paint and raise it?

Want a third? How come, for the first time in Stockbridge history, there are sirens being used? Who decided that and by what process?

Here’s a fourth: 2026 is the 250th birthday of our nation. At Town Meeting, we voted $25,000 to celebrate. The Community Preservation Committee awarded us $32,500 for a Revolutionary War Monument to be unveiled on July 4th, and the Town matched it. The celebration and the monument will commemorate our birthday. How come there are no open meetings on how to spend this money?

It is 2015 again. I hope we voted correctly this time. Maybe this time we will get the transparency and citizen involvement we have always wanted and sometimes enjoyed.

Carole Owens
Executive Editor

Editor’s note: Herein, Mass General Law Chapter 30A Administrative Procedure, is not quoted verbatim. For full text of the above 30A Sections F and G go to https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleIII/Chapter30A/Section20