Under New Law, Brookline Must Provide 24-hour Access to Meeting Notices

Starting on Thursday, Town Clerk Pat Ward bagan make a second copy of every meeting notice he receives.

The extra notices, which are kept in a notebook in the lobby of the Public Safety Building and will be available to the public 24 hours a day, are the town's response to revisions to the state's open meeting law included in the 2009 Ethics Reform Bill. The revised law went into effect July 1.

Though Brookline has posted meeting notices online for years, the revised law requires that notices must be kept "conspicuously visible to the public at all hours" in a municipal building.

Ward said the town plans to install a computer kiosk in the Public Safety Building, which is across Washington Street from Town Hall, to give the public 24-hour access to the town's online calendar. In the meantime, the town clerk is keeping two books of paper notices.

"We've created a book that mirrors the book we have here," Ward said. "For every notice that is posted here in the town clerk's office, a notice is posted in a notebook in the Public Safety Building."

"You don't have to go very far – it's right across the street," he added.