The recently released minutes of a May executive session meeting of the Board of Selectmen indicate that the purpose of their audit of town employees' computers was to find out who was blogging on town computers to Wareham resident William Whitehouse's generally anti-Selectmen website, who is spending business time on the internet, "who is investigating" the Selectmen, if there are outside businesses being run on town computers, information about "the double log versus the private log at the police station," and who is performing criminal records and other searches for information about Selectmen and George Coleman of the Onset Crime Watch.

The executive session minutes have been made public records as required by the Plymouth County District Attorney's office, as a remedy of open meeting law violations. A Dec. 4 letter from Assistant District Attorney Mary Lee stated that the Board violated the law because it "failed to confine its discussions in executive session to the purpose of investigating potential criminal activity by discussing topics ... outside the scope of purpose."

Selectman John Cronan, contacted Friday morning, said the audit was prompted initially by the complaints of two people who said "they were being criticized and insulted on a website and they [felt] that it was coming from the Town Hall." One of those people was Town Clerk Mary Ann Silva, who said a racial slur was posted about her on the website, Cronan said.

"We felt that we should find out who was using their computers to log on" to the website, Cronan said.

The Selectmen then decided to see how much time employees are spending on their computers doing activities that are not work-related, Cronan said.

"If someone comes in and they're running a business out of their computer at work or they're doing their own online banking, if they're purchasing things, you know, how much of that time are we paying them?," said Selectman Brenda Eckstrom, contacted Thursday night. "That's not fair to the residents."

Eckstrom added: "The overwhelming number of employees that we have are awesome and they're hardworking and they go above and beyond on a regular basis."

According to the minutes, during the Tuesday, May 26, 2009 session, Town Moderator John Donahue asked if town counsel would represent him in his defense of a lawsuit from Whitehouse, who runs the website www.warehamobserver.com. The Board of Selectmen voted to give Donahue counsel if the case goes forward. Selectman Jane Donahue, John Donahue's wife, recused herself from the vote.

Asked about that suit this week, Selectman Donahue explained that Whitehouse had filed a complaint against Moderator Donahue after Donahue questioned him about bringing an "unauthorized camera" into the auditorium at Town Meeting, but the matter did not result in a court case.

During the executive session, the Board was updated about the investigation of town employee computer hard drives, which were audited the Friday before the meeting. Town counsel said then-police chief Thomas Joyce, Jr. was concerned about confidential information contained on six detectives' hard drives. Representatives from the consulting group that was conducting the audit updated the Board on the number of computers left to copy and the Board discussed costs of the audit.

According to Town Administrator Mark Andrews, who provided invoices from the consulting group this week, the total cost of the audit thus far is $46,000.

The minutes report that the board also discussed "double" police logs, but no explanation is provided. In an e-mail exchange this week, Selectman Donahue said allegations that separate police logs existed came from several sources within the police department, and that the matter has not yet been resolved.

The Board received another audit update during the June 2, 2009, executive session, according to the minutes. Interim Town Administrator John Sanguinet stated that all but two computers had been copied for audit and asked if those two should be audited. The Board agreed that they should. The Board also discussed the possibility of implementing new computer procedures and protocols.

In the wake of outrage expressed by some town employees and citizens, the district attorney's office seized the disks containing audit information from the consulting group. The DA's office never disclosed its reason for seizing the disks other than its broad intent to investigate possible criminal wrong-doing. The DA's office has since closed its investigation with no finding in regards to the Board of Selectmen. A letter was received Jan. 13 indicating that the disks would be returned, with 15 going straight to the police because they contain confidential information. There is no additional information about the DA's investigation available at this time.

Andrews said that not addressing concerns about how employees are using town equipment could put the town at risk if it were named in a lawsuit due to improper activities being carried out on town equipment.

"Understanding what is on the disks is an important level of insurance," Andrews said.

Eckstrom said not all computers had been audited at the time the DA's office seized the disks.

Once the disks are returned, "I can tell you, as one member of the board, I want to ask each other again, 'How do we want to proceed?'," Cronan said.