March 15, 2012
Massachusetts

Energy Study members face open meeting law complaint

By Jason Graziadei, I&M Senior Writer, The Inquirer and Mirror, www.ack.net 15 March 2012

An open meeting law complaint filed against members of the Energy Study Committee has blown the top off a simmering feud among town officials over the proposed Madaket wind turbine.

The complaint, filed with the state Attorney General’s office by island resident Mary Wawro, accused four members of the appointed Energy Study Committee (ESC) of engaging in private deliberations regarding the proposed wind turbine project in a closed Facebook group known as “Renewable Nantucket – Cut the cord to the mainland.”

“The problem with communications among members of a closed Facebook group is that it is the ultimate in secrecy and the absence of transparency and all records of the communication can be made to disappear,” Wawro wrote in the complaint.

A few hours after it was distributed via e-mail to committee members and others in town government, selectman Whitey Willauer, a member of the ESC who was named in the complaint, responded with a litany of accusations and grievances against Wawro and selectmen chairman Rick Atherton.

Willauer accused Atherton of unilaterally ordering the staff of the Energy Office to cease its work on the Madaket wind turbine, of pandering to the opponents of project while stifling those who support it, and abusing his position as chairman.

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URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/15/energy-study-members-face-open-meeting-law-complaint/