AG Says School Committee Did Not Violate Open Meetings Law

The Attorney General’s office said Monday the North Kingstown School Committee did nothing wrong with regard to open meetings laws, following a complaint filed by School Committee member Bill Mudge last September.

Mudge had accused the committee of violating the open meetings law when it held an emergency meeting on Aug. 27, 2012, after contract negotiations broke down between the committee and the Education Support Professionals union. In addition, Mudge said the panel – a quorum – had discussed agenda items before the Aug. 27 meeting. 

And Mudge also accused the School Committee of negotiating with the union through the use of a “rolling quorum” from March 13 to the time of his complaint, Sept. 6. (A rolling quorum is when official business is discussed through a series of telephone calls outside an officially-called board meeting.)

School Committee Chair Kim Page offered this response to the ruling:

"Every year the Attorney General's office offers a free forum to update public officials on the R.I. Open Meetings laws. While I attended the last six years, I never saw Mr. Mudge at a forum. This is the seventh or eighth complaint Mr. Mudge filed with the Attorney General against the School Committee and the School Committee won every time, Mr. Mudge’s complaints were found baseless. I hope Mr. Mudge attends the Attorney General's forum this summer rather than filing lawsuits which the schools must defend and use taxpayer’s dollars on attorney fees."  

Mudge’s complaints stemmed from dissatisfaction over contract negotiations with the ESP union. The School Committee voted to outsource school custodians, members of the ESP, in June 2012, laying off 26 custodians. Negotiations with the rest of the ESP membership continued through the summer but broke down the end of August.

According to both sides, the breaking point in the negotiations was privatization of the custodians.

On Aug. 26, ESP told the School Committee it would likely strike on Aug. 28, the first day of school. The School Committee convened a meeting the evening of Aug. 27 to decide what action would be taken if a strike did take place.

ESP members did strike on Aug. 28 and school was cancelled. The School Committee went to court to get an injunction against the strike and classes began the following day.

Writing for the Attorney General's office, Special Assistant Attorney General Lisa Pinsonneault said,

“In this case, we find that the School Committee did not violate the OMA when it convened an emergency meeting on August 27, 2012. Based upon the evidence presented, the SC was notified on August 27, 2012, that the NKESP would strike if a contract was not agreed to that day. School was scheduled to begin on August 28, 2012. At the emergency meeting, the School Committee authorized its legal counsel to seek a restraining order from the court if the strike occurred. The NKESP did in fact strike … and legal counsel was able to seek court intervention. … We conclude that the meeting of August 27, 2012, was held to address an unexpected occurrence that required immediate action to protect the public.”

On the issue of a rolling quorum, Pinsonneault wrote,

 “… this department cannot conclude that a quorum of the School Committee discussed public business outside the purview of the public prior to the convening of the emergency meeting, nor can we conclude that members of the School Committee had communications through a conduit, such as the superintendent, to constitute a rolling or walking quorum outside the public purview from March 13, 2012, to the date of the emergency meetings.

 “On this note we observe that with one exception all the material you have submitted evinces that at most three members of the seven member School Committee discussed matters outside the purview. Since this did not constitute a “quorum,” the OMA was not implicated.”