Wow.

Two major real estate decisions in one night. Both placed procedurally next to a phone company contract. Both voted as a group, no debate?

The Attorney General's office has already told this Board to stop doing this. Thirteen months ago. In writing.

In April 2024, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office found the Plymouth Select Board violated the state Open Meeting Law multiple times.

Assistant Attorney General Lindberg wrote the decision. He found that on June 20, 2023, the Board used the law's executive-session exception — the one meant to protect a town's real estate negotiating position — for an impermissible reason. Both sides of the negotiation were sitting in the same closed room. There was no negotiating position to protect.

The AG warned that future intentional violations could carry civil penalties of $1,000 per violation.

The Plymouth Independent reported the ruling on April 18, 2024.

Thirteen months later, on May 12, 2026, the same Board used the same exception again. The asset this time was the Simes House.

Meg Sheehan, the local environmental activist who filed the 2024 complaint, told the Independent: "The practices the Attorney General cited continue to this day. It is a full-time job keeping up with the Select Board's open meeting law violations."

The town's RFP for the Simes House — Bid 22515 — cites M.G.L. c.30B §16. It governs municipal real property disposal.

The rule for award is "most advantageous proposal." Not highest bidder. Price is one of five criteria. The RFP states plainly: "The successful proposer may not necessarily be the highest Price Proposal."

§16(g) authorizes a sale below assessed value. The RFP names it: "The Town Manager reserves the right to recommend acceptance of a bid price below said assessed value."

That language was published September 18, 2025. Thirty days before bids were due.

The awarding authority is named: Derek Brindisi, Town Manager. Not the Select Board. Not Town Meeting. One person. Statutory cover. Picks the winner.

The statute permits all of this. The questions are about what the Board did with what the statute permits.

The Simes House is not an isolated event.

2022–2023. The 2024 AG ruling cited multiple Open Meeting Law failures across that period. Untimely minutes. The impermissible June 20, 2023 executive session. Insufficient public notice.

November 15, 2022 — the Claremont 55-plus housing exec session. A separate August 2023 AG ruling found the Select Board and Zoning Board of Appeals met behind closed doors for an "improper purpose." The deal: waive $1.5 million in developer fees in exchange for a $3 million water booster pump. Public notice was ruled insufficient.

2024 — Benny's Plaza. Then-Chair Quintal publicly urged the town to buy 7.2 acres of struggling commercial real estate assessed at more than $5 million. Plymouth Independent's Mark Pothier wrote that Quintal "must know it wouldn't be smart for the town to borrow money for the purpose of taking a major commercial tract out of play." The town didn't buy. The property is now under contract for assisted living development.

2025 — Atlantic Country Club. The McSharry family had a $19 million offer from Duxbury developer Ben Virga. The town held a right of first refusal under Chapter 61A. Months passed. The town neither matched the bid nor declined it. The buyer withdrew. Then-Chair Canty announced that "the town succeeded, at least temporarily, in blocking a large residential development." A major land decision made through delay, not a vote.

May 12, 2026 — Landers Farm. Administrative Note #5. 128 acres released without substantive public debate.

The pattern is concentrated in one channel: closed-door executive sessions followed by consent-agenda votes.

When Plymouth uses Town Meeting and the Community Preservation Committee, the public sees the work. April 2024 Town Meeting approved Black Cat Road cranberry bog acquisitions 134–1 and White Horse Beach 129–6. The Nuclear Mitigation Stabilization Fund added more than $9 million between 2018 and 2023 through transparent annual votes.

The process can be transparent. It wasn't on May 12.

In August 2025, then-Chair Canty proposed Article 6 — a Land Acquisition Special Revenue Fund. A transparent statutory vehicle for the town to acquire land using Chapter 61 rollback taxes. It would have required state authorization.

Five weeks later, Canty was removed as Chair on a 3–2 vote at an "on the road" Select Board meeting at Manomet Elementary School. Golden, Quintal, and Keohan voted to oust. Canty and Iaquinto opposed.

Town Clerk Pizer — 28 years on the job — told the Plymouth Independent he could not recall a public rebuke like that ever happening in Plymouth.

Eight months later, the same Board sold the Simes House on a consent agenda after a closed executive session.

In January 2025, Town Manager Brindisi ordered all appointed Plymouth officials to stop communicating with the Plymouth Independent.

The order drew NPR coverage and a front-page Boston Globe story. Brindisi called it temporary, "until this can be resolved." The Independent's January 14, 2025 clarification said Brindisi's most recent communication did not indicate willingness to rescind it.

The Independent is the outlet that broke the 2024 AG ruling. The January 2024 Vecchi investigation. The May 8, 2026 Cavacco investigation.

Plymouth should have put a $1.67 million asset disposition on the regular agenda, not the consent block.

They should have published a staff memo explaining the price.

Should have released the bid analysis.

Should have provided a public comment period.

Should have held a substantive open-session discussion.

Plymouth did none of those things on May 12. Two major real estate items, same night, both buried in Administrative Notes, 72 hours before Saturday's election.

Any Plymouth resident has standing to file an Open Meeting Law complaint with the AG's Division of Open Government within 30 days of the meeting. The May 12 window closes June 11.

Any resident has standing under M.G.L. c.66 §10 — the Public Records Law — to request the bid analysis, the Purchase and Sale Agreement, and the May 12 executive session minutes once posted.

Thirteen months ago, the AG told the Plymouth Select Board to stop.

On May 12, they didn't.

The complaint deadline is June 11.