Brookfield selectmen issue urgent edict

By Ruth M. Lyon

Turley Publications Reporter

BROOKFIELD – The board of selectmen has ruled that, as of Tuesday, August 31, all town employees and members of town commissions and committees – any persons sending emails on behalf of the town – must have and use a Town of Brookfield email address.

In a letter addressed to all such persons, the board informs them thusly:

“In June, 2010, the board of selectmen assigned the town website administration, including email management, to the Local access Committee and changed its name to the Brookfield Public Access and Communications Committee. Members of that committee are working to upgrade the website and to supply all town employees, officials and committee members with an official town email address ending in “@brookfieldma.us”.

“As of September 1, 2010, the town of Brookfield website and the corresponding email accounts will be hosted on a new server. The website domain will remain www.brookfieldma.us and all existing email accounts will remain intact. If you currently are using a town email address, your email address will remain the same, however your old password will no longer work after August 31, 2010.”

The letter continues, instructing those affected to contact adminbrookfieldma.us or to call Sarah Heller at 508 -344-1107 to update email setups and passwords.

“It is the ruling of the board of selectmen for all town employees to use a town email address for all Town of Brookfield emails. It is also important to use another address for your personal email, the letter stresses. Those in receipt of the letter are instructed to contact public access committee members Sarah Heller (sheller@brookfieldma.us) or Adam Rundell (arundell@brookfieldma.us) at their earliest convenience.

In the final paragraphs, the letter provides information concerning the use of email for town business. “All email created or received by a town official or employee is a public record and subject to the requirements of the Mass. Public Records law G.L. c.66.

“Emails are also subject to the provisions of the Commonwealth’s Open Meeting Law Guidelines… ‘It is a violation to email to a quorum messages that can be considered invitations to reply in any medium, and would amount to deliberation on business that must occur only at proper meetings. It is not a violation to use e mail to distribute materials, correspondence, agendas, or reports so that committee members can prepare individually for upcoming meetings.”

Board chairman Rudy Heller explained that this is a portion of a plan to improve the town’s communications and computer systems, to assure compliance with open meeting laws, and to avoid confusion regarding public and private messages.

“The new open meeting laws are confusing enough: we have to keep our public and our private messages separate,” he said.