MR.
SPILLANE: The next item on the agenda is the
report from the Communication Subcommittee. The
Communication Subcommittee is made up of Beverley
and Martha. Would one of you like to…
MS.
SLATTERY: I guess I'll go over it. I think they
made a copy of the minutes from the past 2 meetings… 'cause we haven't done that before… ?
MR. SPILLANE: Have you made these minutes available
to everyone?
MS. LORD: Yes
MR. SPILLANE: out there? [pointing to the audience]
MS.
WILLS: Oh no, I didn’t.
MR.
SPILLANE: Ok, The public needs to see…
MS. SLATTERY: OK, that's what my question is.
MR. SPILLANE: Have this available before you
speak to it.
MS. SLATTERY: What, tonight?
MR. SPILLANE: Yes.
MS. WILLS: You want me to run this through the
copy machine?
MS.
SLATTERY: …Copy machine…
DR.
TYRELL: It takes about 15 minutes, I think… I
don’t know. Ralph would know, how long does
it take to warm up?
MR. NAVEDO: Are they in draft form?
MS.
LORD: These are in draft form…
MR. NAVEDO: Just like the regular committee?
MS. LORD: Yes.
MR.
SPILLANE: If you want us to speak to anything,
all the members of the committee… we have
to have them available to the public.
MS. SLATTERY: Ok.
MR. NAVEDO: The ones from the School Committee,
in general, were not available, should they have
been?
MR. SPILLANE: Excuse me.
MR. NAVEDO: The ones for the whole committee,
in general, were not available, should they have
been?
| MR.
SPILLANE: As you know, I didn’t get
these until I came here. So these were
handed out before the meeting. |
| …Anything
that the committee wants to discuss amongst
itself… Each member of the committee
has to have … be made available
to the public. |
MR.
IGO: So, why don’t we just get them
made up?
MS.
LORD: I think …
DR. TYRELL: 10 to 15 minutes.
MS.
LORD: I think his question was these are in draft
form…
MS.
SLATTERY: So until they…
MR. SPILLANE: No, no.
MS.
SLATTERY: are accepted…?
MR.
SPILLANE: Absolutely, if we have something
in front of us…
MS. LORD: Right.
MR. SPILLANE: We have to also make it available
to the public.
MS.
LORD: I believe the question was… all
of these minutes are in draft form, should these
School Committee minutes in draft form… because
they were in front of us… also been made
available to the public?
MR. SPILLANE: Yea, if they wanted.
MS. LORD: If they wanted to.
MS. LORD: Well these were not made available
to the public. [Holding the School Committee
draft minutes.] But these now are suddenly supposed
to be made available to the public? [Holding
the Communication Subcommittee draft minutes.]
Can Martha and I report on this?
DR. TYRELL: Mr. Spillane, the other minutes
were not on the table this evening.
MR.
SPILLANE: OK, nobody objected to it, so…
MS. LORD: No, could Martha and I discuss
MR.
SPILLANE: Yes, if you want to… as long
as you don’t have any…
MS.
LORD: Could we just bring forward the ideas…
MR.
SPILLANE: … yes, I was just asking
a question.
MS.
SLATTERY: So next time I bring minutes…
MR. SPILLANE: Yes.
MS.
SLATTERY: OK… all right.
MS.
LORD: And also, we… Martha… good
idea. You and I should probably have these minutes
available so they can go in the packets to the
members.
MS. SLATTERY: Right, that is why we have them
copied this morning. Because unfortunately I typed
them up last night.
From
the initial part of the discussion, it would
seem that Mr. Spillane is defending the public's
right to be informed. However,
we see that in reality Mr. Spillane applies one
standard to Ms. Slattery and does not hold himself
to the same standard.
Mr. Spillane uses his superior knowledge of the
law to his own advantage. If he had tried to use
it to further the public good, he would have made
sure the minutes of the School Committee were available
for the public.
|
