The procedure for filling openings on town boards may change slightly after town officials got a reprimand from the state attorney general’s office for an Open Meeting Law violation regarding the process they used to fill a vacancy on the Needham Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners.
According to town policy at the time, the vice chairs of the Select Board (Cathy Dowd) and the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners (Jim Flanagan) were responsible for screening and interviewing candidates for a mid-term opening of one of the three elected positions on the NHA board.
Seven residents applied to replace Penny Kirk, who had resigned shortly after the April 2025 town election. Dowd and Flanagan selected two candidates for final review by both boards.
In a combined vote of the Select Board and three members of the NHA, Amanda Berman was selected to replace Kirk. Berman is required to stand for election this year to remain on the board through 2028, or the remainder of Kirk’s original five-year term.
One of the candidates not chosen as a finalist, Barbara McDonald, filed an Open Meeting Law complaint on Aug. 18, 2025, with the state attorney general, claiming that when Dowd and Flanagan met, they constituted a public body and were bound by Open Meeting Law requirements. The complaint also claimed that the interview meetings violated the Open Meeting Law.
The AG’s ruling, released on Dec. 15, said that Dowd and Flanagan, in fact, constituted a subcommittee and should have followed OML protocols.
The ruling required them to produce minutes of the hiring meeting to “the best of its ability.”
The ruling did not nullify Berman’s appointment as McDonald had requested. (The Observer reached out to McDonald for comment but did not receive a response.)
According to the AG’s summary, although the initial meeting to screen candidates violated the law, the joint meeting of the Select Board and Housing Authority Board to vote for the finalist did not, nor did conducting the interviews in private. The combined boards voted 7-1 to endorse Berman’s nomination.
However, the ruling will have an impact going forward. Each year dozens of volunteer vacancies occur across a wide array of boards.
According to Select Board policy, screening volunteers is done by the vice chair of the Select Board. Needham’s 40 or so appointed boards are composed of approximately 300 volunteers, with the majority appointed by the Select Board. The vice chair recruits candidates, schedules interviews and communicates with all of the committees involved.
Town Counsel Christopher Heep advised the Select Board at its Jan. 27 meeting to follow OML guidelines whenever a subcommittee is formed to select volunteers. Dowd told the Observer that the Select Board is united in its goal to put Heep’s interpretation into practice. She said that all such screening committees in the future, among other OML requirements, will post their meeting and agendas at least 48 hours in advance and hold meetings that are open to the public. The law allows actual screening interviews to take place in executive session, or behind closed doors.
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