The Outcome Was Decided Before the Hearing

“My Board is committed to passing this.” Hopkinton Health Director Shaun McAuliffe, thirty days before the public hearing

Easthampton Health Director Ryan Griffin wrote “the board will vote. I am very confident” the day before his own hearing. Amherst’s board worked from a script instructing that “No BOH member will comment or ask any questions.”

Ahead of Somerville’s hearing, Anthony Ishak of Massachusetts General Hospital urged organizers to move the date up: “The less time for opponents to prepare, the better.” A network strategist counselling against holding that hearing during school vacation week put the tactic on the record: “I don’t think it good form to have a public hearing when the public is away (unless you really want to get something through without public input).” During the hearing itself, task force members coordinated in real time over who would raise a hand and speak.

Newton’s council debated the merits at length and then adopted the ordinance with the public barred from speaking — as the campaign’s coordinator reported that night, “Newton City Council just passed NFG 19-4-1… No public comment allowed tonight.”

The evidence

Each exhibit gives the quotation, the speaker and the date, sourced to the public records production in which it appears.

EXHIBIT 1.1

“We intend to hold the hearing mid-May. I intend to rally the parents of the kids that are addicted to Zins, etc. My Board is committed to passing this.”

Shaun McAuliffe, Hopkinton Health Director, to Lisa Stevens-Goodnight, Massachusetts Municipal Association, April 14, 2025. The hearing was held May 14, 2025 and the regulation was adopted.

EXHIBIT 1.2

“There will be a presentation from an Easthampton student on NFG… After that, the board will vote. I am very confident.”

Ryan Griffin, Easthampton Health Director, to Ken Elstein, Belchertown Board of Health, June 8, 2026.

EXHIBIT 1.3

“Board members only need to listen to the public testimony. No BOH member will comment or ask any questions.”

Pre-written hearing script, Amherst Board of Health, October 30, 2025. The NFG provision was unchanged from first draft through adoption despite opposition testimony.

EXHIBIT 1.4

“Ideally earlier if the youth and we are organized. The less time for opponents to prepare, the better… encourage Somerville to use an earlier date.”

Anthony Ishak to Katharine Silbaugh and the NFG task force, January 20, 2025.

EXHIBIT 1.5

“I don’t think it good form to have a public hearing when the public is away (unless you really want to get something through without public input).”

Ginny Chadwick, Brandeis University, to Anthony Ishak and the NFG task force, January 18, 2025, counselling against scheduling the Somerville hearing during February school break.

EXHIBIT 1.6

“Newton City Council just passed NFG 19-4-1… No public comment allowed tonight.”

Maureen Buzby to Chris Banthin (PHAI), Mary Brush (DPH), Cheryl Sbarra (MAHB), Lisa Stevens-Goodnight (MMA) and others, January 21, 2025.

The exhibits on these pages are drawn from sixteen municipal public records returns — Amherst, Ashland, Belchertown, Bellingham, Conway, Dover, Easthampton, Hopkinton, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mansfield, Melrose, Milton, Newton, Somerville, Stoughton and Yarmouth — together with the Department of Public Health’s funding, contract and procurement records. Fourteen of those municipal productions, and the Department’s, are published in full on this site. The Hopkinton and Stoughton returns are not yet posted: Stoughton produced 41 pages on June 12, 2026 and has disclosed roughly 20,000 further emails that remain unproduced, and the Melrose production also remains open.

Local Support Was Manufactured ›