Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 66, § 5A (2026)

Records of meetings of boards and commissions; contents

✓ current as of July 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 5A. The records, required to be kept by sections eleven A of chapter thirty A, nine F of chapter thirty-four and twenty-three B of chapter thirty-nine, shall report the names of all members of such boards and commissions present, the subjects acted upon, and shall record exactly the votes and other official actions taken by such boards and commissions; but unless otherwise required by the governor in the case of state boards, commissions and districts, or by the county commissioners in the case of county boards and commissions, or the governing body thereof in the case of a district, or by ordinance or by-law of the city or town, in the case of municipal boards, such records need not include a verbatim record of discussions at such meetings.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 4 cases, 1983–2008 · leading case: Globe Newspaper Co. v. Boston Ret. Bd., 446 N.E.2d 1051 (Mass. 1983).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Globe Newspaper Co. v. Boston Ret. Bd., 446 N.E.2d 1051 (Mass. 1983). “See G. L. c. 66, § 5A. Thus, under New *442 England Box Co.”

Perryman v. Sch. Comm. of Boston, 458 N.E.2d 748 (Mass. App. Ct. 1983). “The assumption, however, is erroneous, and even where such discussions are gratuitously transcribed or recorded, they would not constitute part of the record required to be maintained and made available in certain instances upon request.”

Nigro v. Conservation Comm'n of Canton, 458 N.E.2d 1219 (Mass. App. Ct. 1984). “39, § 23B, a new judgment is to enter which orders the members of the subcommittee to comply in the future with the applicable requirements of the first, sixth and seventh paragraphs of that section whenever the subcommittee engages in making findings of fact which are to be…”

Dist. Attorney for the N. Dist. v. Wayland Sch. Comm., 24 Mass. L. Rptr. 251 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2008). “G.L c. 66, §5A, the Public Records Law, clarifies the scope of what must be kept by the Open Records Law: [t]he records, required to be kept by section .”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.