Gary Sits Silent

Why didn't Gary Christenson speak up? He was arguably the one individual with the most authority, responsibility, and full knowledge of the lawsuit filed by Malden Public Schools back in 2021 against the Supervisor of Records, the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and Malden resident Bruce Friedman.

As Chair of the School Committee, wouldn't Christenson have had a duty to disclose to the Committee a full and fair update on that lawsuit — in language that was clear, concise, and informative? Yet recently unredacted records from that November 8, 2021 Executive Session meeting record his silence, leaving a short update to an administrative clerk in MPS who provided the update on a litigation matter that has run on under Christenson. The legal billing meter has kept running well past what anyone budgeted for a records dispute. A review of City and School Department payments found $448,341.82 paid to one law firm, mostly for work related to public records.¹

What the Committee was told — by whom

The case is Malden Public Schools v. Rebecca S. Murray, Supervisor of Records of the Public Records Division of the Office of William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth, et al., Suffolk Superior Court No. 2181CV01458.² It began as Malden Public Schools appealing a Supervisor of Records determination in favor of Bruce Friedman's public records request/s — but eventually the City sued the Supervisor of Records of the state agency that adjudicates public records disputes, the Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin and Bruce Friedman himself - a Malden resident - as a co-defendant.

The newly available unredacted minutes show that on November 8, 2021, during an Executive Session, "Ms. Spadafora made a motion to suspend the School Committee rules to ask about an update "about the FOIA request litigation". Mr. Iovino seconded." Mayor Christenson also voted to hold the discussion. After a unanimous vote of the eight School Committee members in attendance, recorded minutes show "School Committee Clerk, Shirley Dorai informed the School Committee that the defendant has counter sued for emails from other requests that are still pending and that these are being reviewed to ensure that redactions are done before they are released. Ms. Dorai continued that Attorney Vasudevan has indicated that she would be attending the next School Committee meeting in order to provide updates on the litigation."³

There is no record of any comment from Mayor Christenson on the topic, even though he chaired the meeting and voted in support of holding the disussion. The update — on active, costly litigation the City itself had initiated — came not from the Mayor and Chair of the School Committee, but from the Committee's clerk. The minutes reveal a level of vague specificity ("the defendant," "the FOIA request litigation") that named no case, no court, and no party.

The paper the Committee wasn't told about

The "Answer" from the AGO was filed on October 14, 2021. It was not a bare brief, eleven days before this Executive Session meeting. It was a two-volume, 1,013-page Corrected Administrative Record — the compiled file of Bruce Friedman's public records appeals to the Supervisor of Records, certified as complete and accurate by then-Supervisor Rebecca S. Murray on October 7, 2021, one week before it was filed.⁴ We've obtained both volumes.

The record itself — a certified index plus the underlying emails, appeal filings, and determinations — documents the Supervisor of Records' handling of Friedman's public records appeals from early 2021. Its size and formality are the point: by the time of the November 8 meeting, this was not an informal disagreement. It was a full-on litigation matter, with the state's own Attorney General's office representing the Supervisor of Records and the Secretary of the Commonwealth as defendants, the state's administrative record running past a thousand pages. In addition to this expansive record - eleven days before the Committee's executive session update — a Superior Court judge denied the City's own motion to impound and told both sides to narrow their differences before returning to court.

None of that reached the Committee. Not the case number. Not the judge's rebuke. Not the size of the record the City itself filed (the initial complaint was 132 pages). Whether those omissions reflect what Christenson knew or didn't know, or what he chose not to say, the minutes remain silent. Christenson's vote to hold the discussion but then follow it with his own silence are now part of the public record.

A pen for one lawsuit, silence on his own

The silence is more pointed given what Christenson has been willing to say recently, in writing, about someone else's Open Meeting Law exposure. On July 29, 2026, Christenson sent the City Council a two-page memo attacking a different elected official over a separate Open Meeting Law matter — an official who has made clear she is running for Mayor. It will be interesting to see if the chair, who found language to criticize another official's Open Meeting Law conduct on the record, will take the time to reflect publicly on his own.