The state’s Gaming Commission has spent more than 100 hours in secret meetings that were off-limits to the public — including “agenda-planning” sessions, weekly “commissioners’ lunches,” and at least one 90-minute conference with the gambling industry’s former top lobbyist, a Herald record review found.
A Herald review of more than 1,000 pages of the commissioners’ individual public calendars dating back to 2012 uncovered questionable ways the commission has been able to meet in full, despite the strict requirements of the state’s Open Meeting Law preventing “deliberation” in private.
Weekly “commissioners’ lunches” inside the body’s downtown Boston office — lasting between one and two hours — began in July 2013 and are still held each Wednesday. No records are kept on the topics, and the lunches are closed to the public, according to spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.
“Commissioners discuss social matters, organizational structure and morale,” Driscoll said. “The commissioners do not discuss any matter that constitutes public business within the jurisdiction of the commission.”
But former Inspector General Greg Sullivan of the Pioneer Institute said he found that hard to believe.
“You can only talk about Tom Brady and ‘Deflategate’ for so long,” Sullivan told the Herald. “Eventually, the conversation probably drifts around to the subject of Massachusetts gaming.”
At least one commissioners’ lunch even featured a special guest — Frank Fahrenkopf, who had stepped down as president of the American Gaming Association one year before he met for 90 minutes with the MGC on Oct. 22, 2014.
Asked why that meeting had to be conducted in private, Driscoll said it was a “training session,” which is allowed under the Open Meeting Law, “to provide his perspective ... on the overall international status of the gaming and racing industry.”
The MGC also holds private “agenda-planning meetings” for up to two hours every other Wednesday.
They often immediately follow the lunches, putting the commission in combined private meetings together for nearly four hours at a time.
Driscoll said commissioners don’t deliberate during the “agenda-planning meetings,” which are also attended by director-level staffers, but “discuss the upcoming public meeting agenda” and materials needed for commissioners’ packets before the public meeting the following week.
Driscoll provided the Herald with a sample “draft agenda” and a “to-do list” that helps staff compile the agenda.
While the commission insists deliberations are conducted and decisions are made only in public meetings, Commissioner Bruce Stebbins had a one-hour entry on his calendar on Sept. 17, 2014 — the day after the Commission awarded a casino license to Wynn Resorts — with the subject line “Conference Call — MGC.”
“I was hoping we could strategize and discuss some critical topics in light of yesterday’s license decision,” Stebbins’ entry stated.
Driscoll told the Herald: “Commissioner Stebbins cannot recall if that conference call actually happened.”
She said “his intent was to have an agenda-setting conversation” with staff and “possibly” Commissioner Gayle Cameron about the future of racing and the employees at losing bidder Suffolk Downs.
The MGC also held a few “commissioner dinners” in late 2012 and early 2013, the calendars show.
Sullivan told the Herald the Gaming Commission’s structure — where the commissioners all work out of the same office — is a problem.
“It’s vulnerable to violations of the Open Meeting Law because of the design of the agency and the decisions the Legislature made,” said Sullivan. “It’s an inherently problematic situation because of the extremely unusual arrangement whereby the commissioners are full-time employees that work in the same building.”
Some of the datebook information the Herald requested could not be produced.
Stebbins’ calendar from March 2012 through the end of 2013 was “unavailable due to technical issues caused by his BlackBerry,” the MGC told the Herald.
Driscoll insisted the commission has acted within the law and has held 156 public meetings since 2012 — all of which require prep work.
“The commissioners never discuss or deliberate on any matter of public business which is, has or could be before the commission,” Driscoll said.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/07/gaming_commission_playing_games_with_open_meeting_rules
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