No Violation of Open Meeting Law During Cease Fire Vote 

Report on the Special  Meeting of the Amherst Town Council, March 13, 2024

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded. The recording can be viewed here.

Present
All town councilors were present.
Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager) and Athena O’Keeffe (Clerk of the Council).

This special town council meeting was held to address two complaints that the open meeting law (OML) was violated at the March 4 meeting, in which the council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. After obtaining a legal opinion from Town Attorney Lauren Goldberg of K-P Law, the council voted unanimously that they did not violate OML, and the meeting was adjourned after 14 minutes.

The two complaints were filed on March 6 by Michael Offner and Lonna Steinberg. Both complaints allege that because the March 4 meeting continued after Council President Lynn Griesemer declared the meeting adjourned at 10:50 p.m., all deliberation after that point constituted a separate meeting for which there was no public notification. However, Goldberg’s memo states that, because no councilors left their seat and the meeting continued in the same venue and with the same Zoom link, there was no violation of OML. 

At the start of the proceedings, Griesemer announced, “We are not here to discuss our vote or re-vote on the resolution. This meeting is not a redo of the March 4 meeting. In addition, if councilors have questions about process or meeting rules related to the March 4 meeting, we will deal with those at a future meeting.”  

Because this was a special meeting, there was no public comment period. 

There were two motions, one for each complaint, and the council voted unanimously on both complaints that OML was not violated. To support this finding, a record of the last 45 minutes of the March 4 meeting was attached to the agenda. Before each vote, Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke stated, “Based on the record of the meeting, the K-P Law memo, and the legal opinions on the  open meeting law decisions stated therein, I don’t believe we have violated the OML at that meeting.” Both motions passed unanimously.

Councilor Freke Ette noted that he had personally recorded the meeting, and that there is a gap in the town’s recording from 10:47 to 10:50 p.m. When Clerk of the Council Athena O’Keeffe asked if he was asking to amend the record of proceedings, Ette declined and said he will comply with Griesemer’s initial instructions that questions of process will be discussed at a later date. 

There was no other comment or discussion from councilors. A formal vote was taken to adjourn the meeting. The council will next meet on March 18.