...was to meet with Town Atty. Geoff Hole tonight and consider an offer for settlement out of court for an appeal on behalf of former town manager Sharon Jackson. The meeting, with all 4 selectpersons, took place in executive session, 1 1/2 hours worth.
There was a small representation of the public present at the adjournment, but there was no further word to the public at this time. Ch. Glover had already said, before the start of the executive session, that any decision would be made official the following Monday, April 26, when the selectboard would vote in public at their regularly scheduled meeting.
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The taking of another look
The other item on tonight's agenda was reopening the discussion on the need for replacing Paris' Street Sweeper. [editor's note: the vote 4-12 on the item was a 2-2- vote, and resulted in the item not being replaced.]
Before the discussion on the sweeper could begin, there was strong concern expressed in one quarter about there having been collusion, instigated by board Member A (who asked for the item to be reconsidered).
Member A had called board Member B (who had made the original motion for the vote at the last meeting) and asked Member B's agreement in having the item revisited. The strong concern expressed was that something had been clandestinely pre-arranged, and hadn't this town had enough of that in the last months; that one board member should not talk to another board member at anytime other than a public board meeting. *See editor's note below.
Turns out that Member A was following procedure as recommended by the board chairman - and it was indeed the correct procedure. There was no pitch made, or vote prearranged; only the agreement to revisit the topic, in order to gather further information.
Further information from Paris Highway Forman Danforth, as well as Town Mgr. Tarr, brought out more details reinforcing the request behind the revisiting - that there was indeed a health hazard to the operator of the current machine because of the poor condition of the machine. The new vote tonight was 3-1 to replace the machine, using FEMA money in the highway department's budget that was designated a couple of years ago for roads.
*[editor's note: Atty. Hole happened to be present during all of the above discussion, and interjected that "Two board members may talk; 3 cannot talk and form a consensus." He went on to point out that ethics, as well, are a matter to be considered in all interactions between board members; transparency is more than just legality.
This town has had it's own recent education on the issue of clandestine activity.
Case in point: Two selectmen sitting in a local restaurant having lunch with a guy who in a few days turns up as the new interim town manager in a town where the regular town manager has just been summarily fired = suspiciously like collusion;
Seems pretty clear that
Case in point #2: One select person calling another select person to see if the other thought an item could go on the agenda = no collusion.]
