Tewksbury Select Board clears open meeting law complaint, orders compliance policy

TEWKSBURY — May 4, 2026 — Tewksbury Select Board finds no open meeting law violations but acknowledges missed deadline, pledges new policy. Town Counsel Attorney Feeley read a two-page draft response Monday to a citizen complaint alleging three violations — post-meeting deliberations after the April 21 and December 2, 2025 meetings, and a failure to respond to a prior complaint on time — and concluded none rose to the level of a sustained violation under Chapter 38, Section 23. The second and third allegations were also deemed outside the 30-day statute of limitations for filing. Member Russo said he first learned of the complainant's name only upon reading the complaint itself, calling the description of events "not reflective of anything I was a part of." Member Kratman apologized for any missed deadline, noting the town has fielded an unusually high volume of public records requests consuming "hundreds and hundreds of hours." The board will vote May 19 on a formal written policy for handling open meeting law complaints, and a training session for all board and committee chairs is planned for late May or early June.