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Frequently asked questions about evaluations
May a public body perform an evaluation of an employee in executive session?
YOU CAN'T USE 'EXECUTIVE SESSION' TO EVALUATE AN EMPLOYEE!
Deliberations conducted for the explicit purpose of evaluating the professional competency of an individual may not occur during an executive session. See G.L. c. 30A, §21(a)(1)
Are individual evaluations completed by members of public bodies public records?
Yes, if those evaluations are used by the public body during an open meeting. The Open Meeting Law states that "materials used in a performance evaluation of an individual bearing on his professional competence," that were created by members of a public body and used during a meeting are public records, and cannot be withheld from public disclosure. See G.L. c. 30A, §22(e). Thus, employee evaluations that members of a public body create and then use during an open meeting to evaluate an employee are public records. Comprehensive evaluations that aggregate the individual public body members' evaluations are also public records if they are used during the course of a meeting. However, evaluations conducted by individuals who are not members of public bodies are not public records. For example, the individual evaluations created by municipal employees in response to a request for feedback on the town administrator are not public records, unless the employees completing the evaluations are also members of a public body tasked with evaluating the town administrator's professional competency.
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