Gaming Commission playing games with open meeting rules

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http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/07/gaming_commission_playing_games_with_open_meeting_rules



PRIVATE EYES: Gaming commissioner Bruce Stebbins had a calendar entry suggesting some ‘deliberation’ was done in private.

Gaming Commission playing games with open meeting rules
Monday, July 6, 2015
Chris Cassidy

The state’s Gaming Commission has spent more than 100 hours in secret meetings that were off-limits to the public — including “agenda-planning” sessions, weekly “commissioners’ lunches,” and at least one 90-minute conference with the gambling industry’s former top lobbyist, a Herald record review found.

A Herald review of more than 1,000 pages of the commissioners’ individual public calendars dating back to 2012 uncovered questionable ways the commission has been able to meet in full, despite the strict requirements of the state’s Open Meeting Law preventing “deliberation” in private.

Weekly “commissioners’ lunches” inside the body’s downtown Boston office — lasting between one and two hours — began in July 2013 and are still held each Wednesday. No records are kept on the topics, and the lunches are closed to the public, according to spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.

“Commissioners discuss social matters, organizational structure and morale,” Driscoll said. “The commissioners do not discuss any matter that constitutes public business within the jurisdiction of the commission.”