It?s unclear which government leaders plan to attend tonight?s invitation by the Marine Museum?s board chairman, Paul Simister, to attend a meeting with his board to ?review the status.?
The general public has not known the identity of board members, besides Simister, for at least several years while required government reports were not filed.
Some required documents have been filed in the past few days.
Simister invited Mayor Will Flanagan, the City Council and The Herald News to attend the 6 p.m. meeting at the museum, which Simister said would be closed to the public.
City Clerk Alison Bouchard issued a cautionary email to the nine councilors that they not violate the Open Meeting Law by attending the meeting.
The standard, Bouchard wrote, is whether the council could make a decision or recommendation that?s ?a matter within the jurisdiction of the public body.?
She wrote, ?My suggestion is that the council president and maybe two other council members attend the meeting and share information with those members not in attendance.?
?I don?t know who?s going to attend and who?s not going to attend,? council President Linda Pereira said Monday afternoon.
?We can?t have a quorum,? said Pereira, who last week told the council she believed they could all attend when Councilor Pat Casey raised the concern. Pereira later contacted Bouchard.
City councilors David Dennis and Joseph Camara have reported that they plan to attend.
Flanagan said he planned to attend the meeting and might bring Matthew Thomas, a part-time city attorney who specializes in land court and tax cases.
Flanagan has requested in writing that Simister resign voluntarily as head of the museum, and in a letter last week asked if a church group set up in the museum since December violated public access during museum hours.
Concerns about the museum include revocation of its nonprofit status and its charter as a public charity, and required filings with the attorney general?s office after a complaint was lodged.
The Marine Museum, at 70 Water St., continues to operate as a taxable entity after losing its 501C3 nonprofit charitable status in February 2011. It owes the city about $20,000 for water bills and back taxes.
Simister has been stating for some period that he was in the process of filing required forms to regain the museum?s standing but has declined to share any of those documents before they were posted.
On Friday, the office of Secretary of State William Galvin posted that it had issued a ?general revival certificate? of its charter to the Marine Museum based upon Simister?s application as board chairman.
A month earlier, on June 18, that charter had been revoked because the last annual report filed with that office was for Nov. 1, 2005, and the date of the last annual meeting listed was Dec. 8, 2004. The officers listed on that document were Simister as president, treasurer and clerk.
The annual reports from 2005 to the present are not yet listed online on the Secretary of State?s website. However, a call center employee at the corporations division, David Fix, said those annual reports could be listed online within the next day or two.
That follows filings made by Simister and reported last week by the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley, who confirmed that her office is investigating complaints.
?The Marine Museum put in all of their back filings,? her spokesman Brad Puffer said, who said the submission of those overdue reports back to 2005-2006 put the museum ?in compliance? regarding the filings. Puffer did not indicate whether the contents of those forms contained accurate or complete information.
Puffer told The Herald News last week, ?We are aware of concerns about the Marine Museum and we are continuing to review them,? declining to provide specifics.
On the public charities form to the attorney general?s office for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2011, it says ?two different signatures are required? for certification by the organization.
Pereira said because of the limitations of how many city councilors could appropriately attend tonight?s meeting, she had a conversation with council Vice President Brad Kilby about meeting separately with Simister then reporting back to the council.
?I don?t have all the facts on what?s going on there,? Pereira said, adding that she also did not know the council?s jurisdiction, if any, over the Marine Museum that was established as a charitable nonprofit in 1968.
On Thursday at 3 p.m. at White?s of Westport, former museum members, Battleship memorial leaders and others have called a public meeting for the purpose of revitalizing the museum and changing the leadership.
Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.
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