Town Attorney Caught On Hot Mic In Strategy Meeting To Subvert Appeal On Jones Petition Signatures. Petitioners Move For Her Exclusion For Conflict of Interest
Photo: picpedia.org. Creative Commons
Petitioners who claim that the Town Clerk’s Office wrongfully disqualified signatures on April 21 have asked that the Town’s Attorney, Lauren Goldberg, be “excluded” from participation at today’s (May 10) meeting of the Board of Registrars,
The request seeks to “exclude oral participation” by Goldberg and the firm KP Law, and also asks the Registrars to elect a chair who is not employed by the Town, to “uphold the Board’s neutrality and independence.”
The request is based on a “pre-meeting,” conducted by Goldberg, which can be seen here, during a few minutes prior to last Friday’s (May 7) full meeting of the Board of Registrars, which is here. The pre-meeting was broadcast over Zoom to the public, including those who were waiting for the official meeting to start. At least 10 members of the public were in attendance at the time. The strategy session “consisted of Goldberg telling the Town Clerk Sue Audette how the upcoming meeting should be run, and essentially choreographing it,” according to the petitioners. Also in attendance and on screen are Assistant Town Clerk Amber Martin and IT Director Sean Hannon.
The petition group is seeking a referendum on the Jones Library building project, and submitted 1,088 signatures to the Town. The Town Clerk’s Office announced the next day that the group was 22 certifiable signatures short of the 864 needed to trigger a referendum.
The group maintains that numerous signatures were wrongfully disqualified, including those of long-time registered voters who have lived at their same addresses for many years.
“We would like to alert you that unbeknownst to the public, and presumably to your Board as a whole, there was a detailed strategy meeting conducted prior to the full Board’s 10 a.m meeting on May 7 … This strategy meeting involved extensive communication between Town Attorney Lauren Goldberg and the Town Clerk’s Office, Directed by Attorney Goldberg,” the request states.
The petitioners noted that the instructions Goldberg gave to Audette were based on the assumption that Audette would be elected to chair the Board of Registrars meeting, although the Board had not yet had an opportunity to deliberate. Audette, as Town Clerk, is an “ex-officio” member of the Board.
“The strategy meeting, part of which was recorded by a member of the public attending showed clear bias by Attorney Goldberg, as she sought to control as many aspects of the upcoming public meeting as possible. This direction, which included literally telling the Town Clerk what to say at numerous junctures, showed efforts to improperly influence the independence of the Board of Registrars,” the petitioners stated.
The petitioners noted that Goldberg instructed Audette not to answer questions posed by the public, before the full Board had met or made any determination as whole regarding how public comments would be handled.
At one point, Goldberg also gave Audette instructions on what to say when “Carol says mean things in the opening,” in apparent reference to Attorney Carol Gray, who is a lead organizer of the Voter Veto petition campaign and acts as its legal counsel.
Today’s Board of Registrars meeting is set for 2:30 p.m., and information on joining it is here:
Below is the link for today’s meeting:
Date: Monday, May 10, 2021
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Location: https://amherstma.zoom.us/j/89220211138
Or One tap mobile: US: +16468769923,,89220211138# or +13017158592,,89220211138# Or Telephone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 646 876 9923. Web ID: 892 2021 1138
WOW! This is damning.
Amber Martin’s reaction when she realizes it all went out live is meme-material.
So… what happened at today’s BoR meeting?
(Or was the “opera” abruptly cancelled after that thunderous “overture”? 😉
I listened to the recording and find this headline to be very misleading. How is giving strategy on public comment trying to undermine the appeal?
“And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within the sounds of silence…”
One answer to Laura Draucker. The KP attorney did not have a preliminary meeting with all of the Board of Registrars, she met with one, the Clerk. The attorney is counsel to the town, as the KP attorneys like to say often — all boards, commissions, officials, and so on — so then why was the rest of the Board of Registrars left out of her pre-meeting advice?