In July 2020 the town manager of Plymouth Mass  Melissa Arrighi started monitoring and spying on Select Board member Betty Cavaccos emails. She did not monitor or spy on any other select board members emails. She reports to this board. The board is elected by the town people in town election. This is at minimum an ethical breach and a reason to terminate her employment with the town of Plymouth. 
In open session on November 24,2020 not one selectman seconded or voted for an investigation. 
We the citizens of Plymouth demand a full investigation of this incident and whomever else may have been involved in this breach of privacy and trust.

 From our elected select woman Betty Cavaco. 
Here is her Statement regarding the secret monitoring of her emails read in open session 11/24/20
“I would like to address the issue regarding the town manager secretly spying on my emails. I would like to start out with a short civics lesson about our Town Charter. I think it benefits everyone to periodically be reminded of how the foundations of our government are set up.
The people of the Town of Plymouth established a home rule charter to form a local government for the good of the Town. This Town Charter lays out the structure and powers given to the government by the people of Plymouth, the powers given to us by our neighbors and friends in this community.
The Town Charter clearly establishes where these powers are vested.
Chapter 2 gives the legislative powers of the Town to the Representative Town Meeting.
Chapter 3 establishes the Executive powers of the Town and Section 2-1 starts off with:
“The Select Board shall be the chief executive body of the town”
The people of the Town of Plymouth, our friends and neighbors, through the Town Charter they established, have vested the 5 of us with the full power of the executive branch of the Town of Plymouth.
Section 5-1 of Chapter 3 sets the powers of the Town Manager and starts off with:
“The Town Manager shall be the chief administrative officer of the town. The Town Manager shall be responsible to the Select Board for the effective management of all town affairs placed in the Town Manager’s charge…”
Section 4-3 reads:
“The Select Board may discipline or discharge the Town Manager at any time by an affirmative vote of 4 members of the Select Board”
It is very clear, in the Town Charter the people of Plymouth established, the Town Manager answers to this board and serves at the sole discretion of this board. The unelected Town Manager answers to the elected Board of Selectmen, who answers to the people of Plymouth.
I find the Town Manager’s spying on my emails a disturbing and scary affront to the foundations of the government of this town. Just as the people of Plymouth would not tolerate their elected Board of Selectmen spying on them, we should not tolerate the unelected Town Manager spying on the Town’s Elected Officials.
I believe this board needs to take immediate action. I have read some of the quotes attributed to the Town Manager in various articles justifying these actions such as:
“I, as Town Manager, must manage and track down affairs and must take necessary steps to ensure that happens. I will not be thwarted from those efforts.”
Quotes like this, are disturbing. These sound like the words of a dictator, not the words of a town employee speaking about the elected officials in the town. Let me be clear, I am not concerned the Town Manager got to read my emails. I understand my emails are public information and I will standby anything I wrote in any of my emails. I am concerned that her reading of my emails, in violation of the FOIA process and in violation of public records law means that she may have read emails pertaining to union negotiations, labor issues and people seeking to report things to the board that would otherwise be protected by law. There are approximately 15 pages within the law the explains exemptions in detail.
My concern is the underhanded way these emails were received and any secret actions that were taken in response to this spying. Running a more efficient government is NEVER an excuse to run around the democratic process set forth by the people.
Look at where this Town seems to be heading.
Selectmen are being spied on allegedly to facilitate communication, but in fact its undermining our efforts to run an efficient government. The Town’s Executive branch.
Government in this Town needs to go back to where it belongs – to the elected officials as set forth by the Town Charter which was established by the people of Plymouth. I want to put Plymouth back in the hands of the people.
Therefore, I will be proposing a motion to have this matter investigated by a fair and independent investigator to objectively investigate this violation of our privacy and report back the findings in open session. These seats we occupy today on this board do not belong to us. They belong to the people of Plymouth and when our privacy in these positions is violated, the privacy of the people of Plymouth is violated.
Above all else, our most important duty is to maintain the people’s faith in the integrity of their town government and their confidence in our ability to efficiently execute our duties. If the people lose faith in this government, we have failed.
There are many questions that need to be answered. Has this happened before or was I just singled out? How many other elected Officials’ emails have the Town Manager spied on? What was done with the information in these emails? Who else saw these emails? The people of Plymouth have a right to know why their Town employees are spying on the people’s elected officials.
This needs to be done in an open and public forum. Not executive session. Actions like this, spying on public officials, undermine the faith people have in their government. Holding secret meetings and calling them “executive session” just furthers the mistrust in us. The people will feel everything was swept under the rug and their government has let them down again. Put Plymouth back in the hands of the people.
Mr. Chairman I would like to make the following motion:
MOTION
1. To appoint a Special Town Counsel, to be chosen by a majority vote of this Select Board, pursuant to our authority as the Select Board under Chapter 3, Sections 3-3-1 and 3-2-7 of the Town of Plymouth Town Rule Charter. The Special Town Counsel’s purpose shall be to:
a. Advise the Select Board on all legal matters brought forth until otherwise discharged from service; and
b. To either:
i. Initiate and conduct an investigation; or
ii. Appoint and oversee an investigator, with the approval of a majority of the Select Board, to conduct an investigation
2. The Purpose of this investigation shall be:
a. To gather all facts pertaining to the secret gathering, use, distribution, and other actions resulting from emails of Elected Officials by the Office of Town Manager, to include if necessary:
i. Employee interviews
ii. Witness interviews
iii. Reviewing of all pertinent documents, emails, and communications
iv. Any other lawful means deemed necessary to further the investigation;
b. To determine the scope, purpose, and intent of the secret gathering of emails of Elected Officials by the Office of Town Manager;
c. To determine if any conduct by any Town employee in relation to, or occurring as a result of, the secret gathering of emails of Elected Officials is likely to be a violation of:
i. Any Town of Plymouth rule, regulation, employee code of conduct, order, By-Law, Home Rule Charter provision, or any other written order applicable to the Town employee;
ii. Any Federal or State law, code, regulation, or statute applicable to the Town employee;
iii. Any code or rules of ethics applicable to the Town employee.
3. The Special Town Counsel shall make recommendations to the Select Board as to whether the findings have warranted contacting any State or Federal agencies for further investigation, including, but not limited to, the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General and State Ethics Commission.
4. The Special Town Counsel shall prepare a final detailed written report to be presented to the Select Board at the conclusion of the investigation who, after accepting the report by a majority vote, shall deliver the report to the Town Manager. Prior to a vote by the Select Board to accept the final written report, the Special Town Counsel shall present in open session a summary of the report to the Select Board and shall answer any questions the Select Board may have pertaining to the report and the investigation.
5. The Special Town Counsel and appointed investigator shall have all the investigatory powers of the Select Board and shall act as the appointed investigator of the Select Board during the investigation. The Special Town Counsel shall periodically keep the Select Board apprised of the progress of the investigation and expected conclusion.
6. The Special Town Counsel shall be discharged from service upon the acceptance of the final written report by the Select Board.
In an effort to thwart continued and future violations, the investigator would be asked to make policy recommendations to this body.”

we the people of Plymouth demand full transparency and full investigation into Town manager Melissa Arrighi and this incident and if wrong doing is revealed she must be fired from her role.