Last week The Free Press was prohibited from entering a meeting regarding the tentative agreement between the University of Maine system and the professional staff union, UMPSA. The Free Press has followed the union’s battle with UMS over the last 18 months.
The Maine State Right to Know Laws are specific about what sort of meetings can be closed to the public.
Though state law allows officials to close meetings in which negotiations take place, last week’s meeting was simply a question and answer session and should have been open, according to lawyer Sigmund Shutz of Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios and Haley, LLC, a Portland law firm specializing in media law. The firm represents such media outlets as the Portland Press Herald, WCSH Channel 6, the Casco Bay Weekly and members of The Free Press.
Officials within the University agreed with Shutz that the meeting should have been open.
“That meeting should have been open to anybody who wanted to attend,” said Bob Caswell, director of USM Media Relations. “Not just for The Free Press or the media, but for any student or person who wanted to go.”
Casandra Fitzherbert, associate head of Access Services at the University Libraries, met with members of The Free Press outside the meeting to explain why it was closed.
She said that people inside the meeting wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing specific issues, such as medical benefits, if The Free Press was there.
Fitzherbert made it clear she didn’t want members of The Free Press inside the meeting, agreeing only to speak to a reporter afterward.
The Free Press explained it was aware of the sensitivity of the situation and that it wasn’t interested in details about specific personal information about staff members. It simply wanted to cover the meeting as a whole.
After a short conversation, Fitzherbert and The Free Press came to a standstill.
The Free Press had no choice but to wait to speak to officials after the meeting.
News Editor Steve Peoples can be contacted at: [email protected]