The Oak Bluffs selectmen have released the minutes of a May 9 executive session during which the board voted to terminate town administrator Casey Sharpe without cause, triggering a clause in her contract to pay her more than $76,000 in salary, sick time and vacation pay.


After leaving her post July 15, Ms. Sharpe received $45,427 for six months’ salary and $31,449 in unused sick days, for a total payout of $76,876.

News that the board had terminated Ms. Sharpe contradicted earlier public statements from selectmen that she had resigned. Board members agreed to release the executive session minutes at their meeting last Tuesday.

“I think it’s in the best interest of the town since we’re experiencing such a terrific pounding on this,” said selectman Kerry Scott.

The minutes show that the board agreed to terminate Ms. Sharpe without cause at her request, after she cited concerns over a hostile work environment. But according to the brief account of the closed-door session contained in the minutes, Ms. Sharpe had also resigned two weeks earlier.

“Town administrator Casey Sharpe announced she had submitted her resignation on April 21, 2006, due to a hostile working environment,” the executive session minutes state. “It is taking a toll on her physical and emotional health. She requested that selectmen terminate her without cause under the terms of her contract. This will eliminate the necessity of her taking action against the town, and allow a transition,” the minutes also state.

The vote to terminate Ms. Sharpe was unanimous.


Both Ms. Scott and selectman Roger Wey said later that they were unaware of the financial implications of their vote, but chairman Duncan Ross and selectman Greg Coogan said the entire board knew the consequences and the cost to the town.

The selectmen’s decision last Tuesday to release the May executive session minutes followed a request by the town finance and advisory committee last week for minutes and the audio record of the meeting. The committee also requested a copy of Ms. Sharpe’s contract.

Last week Mr. Dutton told the finance committee that audio tapes of executive sessions and regular selectmen’s meetings are recorded over after minutes are prepared. It is unclear whether the tape from the May executive session has already been destroyed.

Former selectman Linda Marinelli told the board that she has kept a list of executive sessions over the years. Minutes from some meetings dating as far back as the 1980s have yet to be released, she said.


“I don’t understand why this is such a big deal in this town — is it really such a problem to let the public see these minutes? I said I would keep haunting this board until those minutes are released, and I will,” Mrs. Marinelli said.

Town administrator Michael Dutton said minutes exist for all executive session meetings, and are kept in a separate book from the selectmen’s regular meeting minutes. In the past, the town has had to hire an outside person to transcribe the minutes from the audio tapes of executive session minutes, although that is not the case now.

“We’re all caught up on executive session minutes,” Mr. Dutton said.

Responding to the question of why some of the older minutes have not been released, Mr. Dutton said state law dictates that executive session minutes may remain secret as long as publication may defeat the lawful purposes of the executive session.

That said, the town administrator conceded there are minutes dating back as far back as the 1990s and 1980s that can be legally be released.

“It’s really a housekeeping thing. The selectmen just haven’t gotten around to voting to release them,” Mr. Dutton said.

The practice of releasing executive session minutes varies from town to town.

Tisbury town administrator John Bugbee said there is frequently a backlog of executive session minutes in his town. He said reviewing the minutes and determining if they can be released can be very time-consuming, and is often pushed aside for more pressing matters.

“It doesn’t happen as routinely as I would like. I think all towns struggle with it — because the materials are potentially litigious, you need to look at each one and determine what can and can’t be released,” Mr. Bugbee said.

But Mr. Bugbee also said unlike Oak Bluffs, there is no public outcry to release executive session minutes in Tisbury. He said he could not recall the last time someone asked for the release of executive session minutes.

“That doesn’t really happen here. I think it’s happened maybe once or twice while I’ve been here,” he said.

Aquinnah town coordinator Jeffrey Burgoyne said his town has no set policy for releasing executive session minutes. He said he keeps audio tapes and hand-written minutes of each meeting, and selectmen vote to release minutes from those meetings after the purpose of the meeting has been resolved. Sometimes that takes place immediately after the matter is resolved, and sometimes it takes longer, Mr. Burgoyne said.

Chilmark executive secretary Timothy Carroll also said there are executive session minutes in his town dating back several years that have yet to be released, but mainly because of ongoing legal issues.


“We haven’t released many executive session minutes lately because we haven’t resolved a lot of the issues. But our [minutes] are fairly boring anyway,” Mr. Carroll said.

West Tisbury executive secretary Jennifer Rand said she reviews executive session minutes several times a year, and selectmen then vote to release several sets of executive session minutes at once.


“It takes quite a while to go through all the minutes, but we try to keep them as current as possible,” Ms. Rand said.

Edgartown town administrator Pamela Dolby said all executive session minutes are kept in a bound volume. When someone comes in and wants to see the minutes, Mrs. Dolby determines whether the matter has been resolved and if the minutes can be released.

Mrs. Dolby said the town personnel committee deals with most personnel issues, and executive sessions are usually reserved for legal matters and land transactions. She estimated that selectmen hold executive sessions six or seven times a year.

She also said requests to see executive session minutes are rare.

“It just doesn’t come up a lot,” Mrs. Dolby said.

Back in Oak Bluffs, selectmen on Tuesday voted to release executive session minutes from meetings as recent as July, and Mr. Dutton said he wants to examine how selectmen use their executive session function. He said over the years, selectmen have used closed-door meetings to discuss things that could legally be discussed in open session.

“I think people instinctively mistrust closed door meetings —  it has something to do with a curiosity factor. It seems anything done in secret tends to make people wary. That’s not to say there aren’t issues that must be taken up in executive session, but I think as a rule [the town] has relied on executive session too much in the past,” Mr. Dutton said.

He said he supports releasing executive session minutes on a timely manner, as well as posting the minutes of both regular and executive session minutes on the internet.

“The people have a right to these records, and I think we have a responsibility to provide them with easier access to things like minutes of meetings,” Mr. Dutton said.