The Paris selectboard have scheduled a special meeting Thursday March 18 with town's attorney, Geoffrey Hole, to discuss matters relating to Sharon Jackson vs. The Town of Paris. The suit was filed in July 2009 - and to date, there has been no exchange of information, no discussions, no clear understanding of anything.
This is not just about money - that would be a gross oversimplification. This is about wrongness -all the way around. It is complex, sticky, and unpleasant; but not impossible to deal with. The people in this town are not timid by nature, and have shown a distinct bent this winter for setting things straight. However, not only do the town's people not know anything about the status of the suit, neither do our selectmen at this point.
The meeting will be held in closed session, most likely. However, the discussion at this meeting should provide the basis for answers we have been waiting for:
What happened? How did it get to this? What can we do now? How do we go on from here?
As a result of the 3-18-10 meeting, it is to be hoped that the next selectmen's meeting, Monday March 22, will include specific straightforward information on this topic. When citizens have been attending these meetings over a long period of time, they do not need to be read endless details and rules about procedure; they simply need to be given information about what's going on, as much as is possible without jeopardizing confidential proceedings.
Our selectmen need to know we are waiting for their response.
