The Tisbury Select Board has been served with an open meeting law complaint by the chair of another town board, although the town has decided not to take any action against the alleged offender.
Tisbury planning board chair Casey Hayward filed a complaint against select board member Roy Cutrer following a contentious planning board meeting in which town officials were discussing an upcoming town meeting vote over the proposed renovation of the old waterworks building.
Hayward, in her complaint, alleged that Cutrer violated open meeting law when he sent an email with other select board members and planning board members, ultimately creating a quorum without posting an agenda.
During the select board meeting Oct. 7, Cutrer admitted to the mistake, but the board — with only two members present, including Cutrer — did not take action to reprimand him.
The issue began at a September planning board meeting, just before a vote at town meeting to renovate 325 West Spring St., slated to house the town administrator. During that meeting, Hayward called Tisbury Select Board member John Cahill “out of touch.”
Cahill said, at the meeting, that the town needed to figure out how to pursue municipal housing. He highlighted that more employers on the Island were trying to provide housing, and it was becoming more difficult to hire top talent, underscoring that the West Tisbury Police chief makes nearly $200,000 a year, and some nurses at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital make $180,000, but still struggle with housing.
But Hayward took issue, stating that the town would be taking a “top-down” approach by having Town Administrator Joe LaCivita, who has a $200,000 salary with a housing stipend in his contract, be the first town employee to receive housing, even if the building could house another employee sometime in the future. She called the arrangement a “handout,” saying the money should be used elsewhere in the community. Hayward took issue with the arrangement because LaCivita makes so much more than most residents in Tisbury, where she said the average yearly income was much lower.
“You are so out of touch, Mr. Cahill,” Hayward said. “We are not giving a handout to people just because the only people that you know are making $200,000 a year.”
After the meeting, select board member Roy Cutrer sent the email in question on Sept. 19, stating that he was appalled by how Hayward acted. He also attached the town’s code of conduct in the email.
The same day, Hayward filed the complaint to the town, stating that sending the email to the entirety of each town board created quorums, and was in violation of state laws since it “discusses matters within the jurisdiction of the planning board, such as the chairwoman, her decisions, and inter-board relations.”
During the Oct. 7 meeting, the Tisbury Select Board voted 2-0 that no remedial action be taken beyond a reminder about the protocol when sending emails to town officials. Board chair Christina Colarusso was absent from the meeting.
Joe LaCivita said during the Tuesday meeting that while a “technical violation” had occurred, since the email was about a town official’s conduct rather than policy or a subject under the board’s jurisdiction that may be voted on in the future, remedial action was not needed.
When Cutrer asked whether he should recuse himself, as he was the board member named in the complaint, town counsel David Donesky said that would not be necessary.
“That was a very unfortunate meeting … I hope I’m never witness to something like that again in any meeting that I attend, whether it be at the business level or political level,” Cahill said.
Meanwhile, the board pushed back a discussion about the town’s code of conduct to a future meeting.
