Select Board - Special Meeting

I'm just not going to get Lynn's on mute. Yeah. Uh it's for Monday anyway, but um this just to show you what we've been working on for the last couple days. Yeah. Thanks for putting all that together. I know it's a a heavy lift. All right, I'm moving Josh in. It looks like I Yeah. Okay. Shel scheduled to be on tonight. Yeah. Uh Shelley said she'd be on and Andrew too. I got Andrew. Hi Josh. Hi Peggy. Hi, Andrew. Andrew, I don't think we can hear you. Can you guys hear me? Oh, yeah. Josh, are you in your car because your house is too noisy? Just kidding. Hi, ma'am. His baseball game. Nice. Okay. And there's Shelly. You got her. I got her. Okay. Okay. Pin.

Sometimes it takes a couple tries. Okay, I just did it again. See what happens. Yeah, she it looks like she's coming in. Okay, I think we have more attendees on than our for our work closure special meeting last week. Hi Shelley, welcome. Shelly, can you hear us? I think you're muted. There we go. She gone. We can hear Shel. Shelley, can you hear us? So, I think you're still muted here. Shelley, can you hear us? Okay, we can't. I think you're muted. I think she's working on it, it looks like. Just take a second for that for her to figure that out and then we'll get started. Okay. There we go. There we go. Okay. Hi, Shel. Can you hear us? Okay. Yeah, I

can. I'm sorry. For some reason, all the settings on this laptop were shut to off, so I had to figure out. I apologize. I It's okay. We're fine. No problem. No problem at all. Um, okay. Great. Uh, I will kick things off. Uh, welcome to the June 11th special meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board. This is select board chair Venith Havathy. I'll be confirming that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Dan Zoro here. Andrew Lamb here. Josh Lavine here. Shelley Mayor De Wolf here. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Lynn Simmons here. Peggy Sheldon here. This open meeting of the law select board is convened via Zoom webinar pursuant to the act extending certain COVID 19 measures which extends the provisions pertaining to the open meeting law. The webinar information is posted on the agenda and the town's website identifying how the public may join. There's no chat or Q&A function. All votes will be taken via roll call vote. All the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on long meadowmma.gov. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise. This meeting will not feature resident comment. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees are participating by video conference. Please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking. If anyone in attendance is recording this meeting, please announce yourself now. Okay. All right. We've got uh one James Wamc raised his hand that he was recording uh the meeting. Great. All right. All right. Uh now we can kind of move into the agenda. So uh as you all saw, the agenda is to set a special town meeting and to open the warrant for that special town meeting. So, first I'm going to turn it over to

Lynn, who uh is going to kind of talk about what we are proposing the select board to discuss and vote on tonight. Thank you. So, as you saw on your agenda, the um suggestion is for a special town meeting for July 9th. That is a Wednesday, uh which is a little um out of the norm for us. Our town meetings are generally on Tuesdays. Uh the Wednesday was selected uh because we have a public hearing scheduled July 8th, that Tuesday for our municipal aggregation plan. So the next uh date available would be that 9th, the meeting on the 9th. We stayed away from uh 4th of July week. Um but I did today check to see if Tuesday, July 15th was a possibility, and I'm able to confirm that it is. um the space is available, the town moderator would be available and the town clerk would be available. So if there is preference to uh hold a meeting on a Tuesday as we standardly have done uh that is a possibility, right? Um yeah, so I guess we'll take that up first. That the part about the setting the date. Um, and you know, my initial thoughts are it being July 9th, kind of coming off of Fourth of July weekend. I don't know if folks will be out of town still, if uh folks are going to be, you know, on vacation the week after. And so it might make more sense to set this on July 15th. um just because it does provide a little bit more space from Fourth of July and also because like Lynn said, people I think are just more used to having these types of meetings or voting on Tuesdays. But uh you know, happy to hear from anyone else on and their thoughts on this. Yeah, Josh. Uh so that I think that makes sense. Um, my

only concern is that if I know that July 9th is already out there a bit and I if people have already started planning for that, uh, that would be the only issue. But I do think that there's enough of a, uh, enough of a window now or enough warning either way that people can work around it hopefully. But I know that the July 9th has been out a bit and that's my only concern. But I I'm I don't feel strongly either way. Okay, great. Um, Andrew, did you have something? Nope. I'm fine either way. Sorry, I just saw you unmute, so I thought you were ready to uh talk. Um, Dan, yeah, real quick. So, um, agree with what you had to say beneath um my not really a concern, but uh Lynn and I guess for the town, are we going to be how are we going to be communicating with with the public on this? Um, obviously it's it's important uh very important uh to have this uh special town meeting. So, just want to make sure that folks are are aware to Josh's point uh kind of on blast to notify folks. Sure. Yeah, it's a it's a challenging time of year to get people's attention. So, um we would use our standard methods of the website, uh my manager's newsletter, the mobile app, um social media. We could also uh do a reverse 911 call. We did do that for the last um annual town meeting. Didn't really get a lot of um feedback that it wasn't, you know, something people wanted. So, we could do something like that again, especially as you pointed out like this time of year, people aren't used to a town meeting this time of year. And also I I would add that the uh the signage that we put up, you know, for for voting day as well, I think that might be appropriate to notify folks. Yes, great point.

Great. Thank you, Dan. Uh anything else? Um Lynn, how should we conduct these votes? So, should we have a vote to set the town meeting date and then also then, you know, kind of open the warrant, talk about the warrant? Um, I think you can do it together if you want. Uh, but you can also do it separate. Um, okay. It's up to you. Um, okay. Um, so, uh, yeah, Josh, yeah, I I'll move that we set July 15, 2025, uh, set a special town meeting for that date. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? All right. Uh, Peggy, if you can do the roll call vote. I shall. Um, Andrew Lamb, yes. Josh Lavine, yes. Danco, yes. Shelley Maynard, yes. Anise Hami. Yes. Thank you. Great. Thank you. All right. And then, um, Lynn, if you want to now, uh, talk about the warrant that we're opening up. Yeah. Thanks. So, um, as you guys are all aware that this is coming um, up pretty quickly. So, we're working um, to gather uh, information, but also prepare something for you for an actual article to discuss on Monday night. Um there's a couple different uh directions we can go with this. Um one direction is the actual recall uh petition or recall language in the charter that would allow uh for a recall petition to happen. So that's one possible avenue. Um the other could be uh to amend the charter to remove the uh planning board as elected officials and instead have them appointed. Uh we had considered uh including the housing authority in that

as well because that has been one that's kind of been talked about over the years along with planning board that um there's been turnover. It's been hard to fill some of those positions and um after we reviewed that and had town council take a look, we learned that we actually cannot include the housing authority right now. It is it would be a different mechanism to do that. um and so we cannot uh remove them as being elected and make them appointed. So we've put that on hold for now and the uh samples that you will get for Monday night will um include just the planning board. So again that would be removing the planning board as elected officials and instead having them be appointed by the select board. This would uh line up with the other 20 plus boards and committees that the select board vets applicants for and um handles appointments for um including zoning board of appeals and the conservation commission which have very similar uh statutory and regulatory authority as the planning board does. So it's not out of line with what you're already doing for other groups. Um, and I'm I'm happy to talk in more detail about that or um answer questions you have. I also realize though you have not seen any of these yet. So again, this is moving quickly and we're trying to get it developed as um as fast as we can to give you time with it before Monday night. Yeah, thank you, Lynn. And so I I'll just add that with the uh moving the planning board to an appointed board, this was something that had been discussed prior to any of these incidents involving Mr. the gun. This was something that was brought to Lynn as an idea from planning board members and uh Lynn and I had been talking about this and even about potentially putting this on our fall special town meeting warrant. Um and for a number of reasons for the planning board, I think if you look back at planning board elections, very rarely are they contested. uh two

years ago we even had a write-in candidate win uh planning board seat because no one had uh put their name on the ballot for it and so we have had you know there has been some difficulty in filling the planning board um or and I think also last year when we had a school committee vacancy and we had to do an appointment for it. I think all the select board would probably agree when we did those interviews, we had extremely qualified candidates. And I think one of those things that um you know that I think about with that is that a lot of those folks maybe not would not have run in an election where they would not have pulled papers, collected signatures, put themselves out there for an election, but when it was a chance to be appointed, they put themselves forward. And so, uh an election can be a barrier to folks participating. and and it it kind of makes sense I think in this situation where we don't have contested elections really for planning board that we move to it being an appointed board. Um and like Lynn also said this is something that other communities have also done. They moved their planning boards from elected to appointed and in also weighing this option versus the recall option. the recall option and this option are are similar in in many ways in the sense that a special town meeting needs to be held and then a ballot question um or a ballot vote needs to occur and the plan for that right now is for the ballot vote to occur with the middle school vote on September 30th so we can have two ballot questions on one election and do that together. Um the difference the main difference with the recall option is that with the recall option there has to be a citizen petition that initiates the recall and then there needs to be about

15% of the voting population. So in Long Meadow that's about 2,000 plus uh signatures collected for this petition within 20 days. Um, and also I think you know since this kind of this conversation began last week, you know, there have been folks that have talked about the wisdom of having uh recall provision in our charter. And it seems to me at least that this is something that maybe we should think about um in a more sober way in a and not necessarily in a reaction to this event. Um whereas with the you know turning the planning board into an appointed board that was something that was already being talked about and um you know had some support in favor of before all of this occurred. Um and so you know for those reasons I think moving forward with the option of making the planning board an appointed board uh would be the would be the better option. Um and then you know also just in terms of this incident with Mr. gun if and and the whole situation with Mr. Gun if the ballot question passes on se September 30th the planning board members become appointed and so the select board the next day could hold a meeting and rescend Mr. Gun or anyone else's appointment. Um and so that is also a way for us to you know potentially remove Mr. done from the planning board, you know, at on October 1st at at the earliest. Um, so that I just kind of wanted to add, Lynn, did I get anything wrong there or anything to add to that? No, you're spot on. Okay, great. Uh, anything from the rest of the select board. Andrew, just some questions just so we

can re really fully understand both of these options. Um, so in a recall situation where we get there's a there's the signatures are are obtained and then the town meeting occurs is that the end then the recall could occur or does something have to happen with the state legislature? There's more waiting. Is there other steps beyond the ballot vote? No. So after the town meeting is when the petition signature collection uh would have to occur and then right and then after that occurs then it would still go to a ballot question right and then I'm sorry I meant after the ballot is at the end is can can a person be recalled or is there more steps after that? Uh so let me just um step back for a second. So um the first step would be the select board doing the charter change you know bringing this to the town meeting town meeting would then need to approve this charter change then that goes um to a ballot vote in that's how we're proposing this not as a special act it goes to a ballot vote September 30th that would just create the process for a recall I see then someone actually has to start a recall process or they don't either way they they could or they couldn't Um but in order to actually effectuate removing um the planning board member, the recall process would have to start after September 30th, assuming it passes at the ballot. So in that process, then so a citizen could start a petition to get 2,000 signatures. And then what would h what would the process look like after those signatures are turned in? Yeah. So uh first it starts with a an actual petition process. Um I'm a little fuzzy on the exact numbers that someone would bring in, but uh someone brings it in to initiate the process, which then triggers the town clerk to actually

issue recall petitions. Um those are blank forms that um are pretty standardized that um then need to collect those 15% of the registered voters. They have 20 days to do that. Once they bring those signatures back and they're certified by the town clerk, the town clerk has so many days to turn those over to the select board who then has to put the person on notice that a um satisfactory recall petition has been received and give them 5 days to resign. Otherwise, you would move forward with setting the election. Um, and at the time that you set the election, if that person resigns, say 6 days after or 15 days after, you still have to go forward with that ballot question, that election. Um, so then you'd hold the election. Uh, you you'd get nomination forms in. Um, the election would would take place and um that that person can also be listed as a candidate um on on the ballot. So, it is a it's a lengthy process um and it's it's pretty complex. We would try to make it as simple as possible if we adopted it uh to make sure that people understood uh what what steps were needed. But, um just so it's clear uh it it would not happen right after that town meeting vote. That just all that does is create the process. So it sounds like once a citizen turns in the requisite number of signatures, it's not actually recalling the individual. It's actually creating an an election for that position again, which that person could run for again if they so chose, but they could also be ousted. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Thank you, Lynn. Sorry, I confused those two steps, Andrew. We've I think we've run through about a hundred different scenarios over the last six days. Um Yeah. But thank

you, Lynn. Um, anything else from the board on this? So, Josh, um, so I got a question and then a more general comment. So, in 2019 when the recall, uh, town meeting question did pass. Was that just a majority vote and that's why it died in the legislature? This is right when I moved to town. So, what what happened in 2019? Yeah. So, from what I've pieced together, and I'm going to reserve the right to correct myself at the next meeting because again, this is all happening quickly. Uh, there were two citizen petitions related to recall. One of them included select board, and there was um a motion to take no action um on that one on the floor of the meeting. And then the second one did not include the select board, and I'll explain what that distinction is after. Um, that one had some amendments that were made on the floor. None of the amendments passed. Um but the actual main motion did pass with a twothirds majority vote and it was submitted to the legislature where um it was referred out to committees and it essentially died. Um it was not um kept going through the legislature. My understanding is um due to the fact that the school committee members that were really the subject of it had all resigned by that point and the board and the town at that point decided not to uh continue to try to bring the legislation forward. But again, I'm still verifying all of that detail. Um but the distinction between the select board in one and the select and not in the other, I I want to just clarify this. Um the only way you can change the appointment mechanism and there's some other things but um specifically appointment and/or removal mechanisms or length of service for select board members or a town manager is through a charter review commission which is an entirely

different structure um than bringing something forward via citizen petition or via a select board article. uh and so the the mechanism to to do that that that they tried to do through citizen petition wouldn't have been allowed. Um it would have been in in violation of article 89. So um that's just import an important distinction to make because if you decide to move forward with the recall language in the article um you the version I have in for you Monday night does not include the select board. It only in the example I have includes um school committee, planning board, housing authority and the town moderator. Those are the elected positions that can be done through this type of um article. Okay. And then uh thank you for that. And so for my my general comment, I given what we've learned in the past few weeks, uh I a recall does not seem in the cards to me uh for a number of reasons and I think we can make it uh simpler by doing the uh changing the planning board to appointed. Um I I think there are some benefits to that. It could open it up to people. I I agree with on the school committee. We did see some excellent candidates. Um what I my concern is and and I do think because people want it, I think we should absolutely bring it to town meeting and let people vote on it. Um that's our form of government. That's what we should do. Um my concern is that we are concentrating too much power in the select board by doing that and it and we taking away a check on power on the planning board while leaving the select

board with no mechanism for anything to ever happen if and I I think that what happened with Mr. gun has showed that you need a mechanism if somebody goes goes rogue and if somebody is not living up to the what they've should do for the town and what they've pledged to do. And so I I'm not saying we we shouldn't go forward with this, but I think we also should think about a way to start the process to have some sort of uh mechanism for the select board u because we're not above approach. U one of us could something could happen with us that the majority or twothirds of people in town don't agree with. And so if it is a charter review commission, uh I think we should do that. I know that at our planning meeting last year, we're talking about our goals. Uh that is one of the things we talked about, but I I think that if we're going to do this, I I think that we should make a commitment to take those steps to make it so if people aren't happy with how the select board is acting, uh that we are also held accountable. Uh and it's it's a high bar uh to to be recalled. Um but to to my knowledge, there's nothing there's no other way that the select board is able to be uh there's no check on their power or on somebody acting without waiting three years for their term to end. So I I think that it's clear that people want an action to be taken. They want us to they don't want to see Mr. gone finish out his term. So I I think that we owe it to the people that elected us to to do that and to bring them another mechanism to do that. But I think we should also make it so that we

we also can be held accountable. Great. Thank you Josh. Um anything else from the board? I just had a question beneath. Yeah. So, if we go the appointment route um and it and it ends up on, you know, it's on the ballot, is this just a majority vote um or is there a certain threshold or anything that needs to be met? At the ballot box, uh it's just a majority. Um at town meeting, it's a twothirds. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, Andrew. Um, so you know, I I know that these issues with Walter Gun sparked this development because, you know, we're talking but you know, but since we're kind of talking about making a permanent change to the structure of our town government, when I think of this, I really only want to do a change with where we appoint the planning board members if it makes sense for the town itself and not because of this one-off problem with a person or event. Now, that said, I see that many towns in Massachusetts do appoint their planning board members, and I see no reason why a planning board can't function well as an appointed board. Um, and I actually do agree that we'd probably have no trouble getting lots of qualified applicants because running for office and especially for a long 5-year term is kind of ownorous to people. Um, I think if the current planning board was in favor of this, which we would find out at town meeting, that would be very interesting. It would mean a lot um to me and probably a lot of other people at this point. And I think considering both sides, both of the two options that we've kind of been presented with, I'd probably be in favor of making the planning board appointed rather than the recall option. I I agree with Josh. I have no problem with there being a recall option. I think that's very important and should include the select board members because anything could happen in the future, but I think we could consider that later. Um, so and I agree like it's our job right here to give the town the chance to decide.

We're not deciding, we're just giving the talent a chance to decide and and I think that that that's what we should do. Great. Thank you. Uh Dan. Yeah. And the other the other thing I would add is I I agree with the the appointment um method or direction, the other thing I would add is if if we just look back at the the history just over appointments over the past year, I mean, we we take it very seriously. I've I've spoken about this before just around appointments and I'm not suggesting that uh had Walter Gun come in front of us that he wouldn't have been appointed. Um but we do we all do our due diligence for candidates and and we prevented certain individuals from serving on on boards that could have been a risk for a scenario similar to this one. Um, so I I think the the way that the appointments have been working um is is a good way to uh bring qualified people with the proper temperament to these boards uh to be appointed and they have the skills necessary uh to be effective. So that is just another reason why I I support this. Um, and I agree with Andrew and Josh as well as as um, you know, having another discussion around including select board members for this as well because none of us are are above anybody else in the town, any citizen. So, I completely agree with with those points and um, thank you for for bringing those up, Josh, as well as Andrew. Great. Thank you, Shelley. Yeah, thank you. This has actually been really helpful to hear everybody's uh, thoughts on this. Um, I agree. I do like the idea um with having an appointment for the planning board. I think it makes sense for all the reasons everyone just articulated. Um and I think it especially since it aligns with our other 20 some odd boards being appointed and I think it would help us open up to a broader pool of candidates for us to choose from. So I'm in agreement with

that. I also um am in favor of a recall exploring a recall for the select board as well. I think that that's the right thing to do and it's probably worth our time. Great. Thank you. Uh Josh, I just wanted to speak uh just one more time about the appointed. Um so I I'm in front of a lot of planning boards and the I'm most familiar with the East Meta Planning Board. It was actually appointed by town manager. Uh and they're a really hardworking and excellent group that it works very well. And I on the flip side, I I know of some planning boards where there's some tension with the select board uh or the mayor or um where it doesn't they they're kind of at loggerheads and uh which can be good. it it can foster discussion, but uh it can hold things up and I I think that um given so that really cuts both ways though because if people uh can't have a different say on how they want the town finances to look versus planning. Um so as I started talking it came out a little bit more neutral on that than than I expected. Um but I I think that there I've seen it work very well in other places. Um, so there is it can be a a good thing for the town and there's a reason a lot of towns switch to it. Great. Yeah. Andrew, just one question. So, um, will there be any um, uh, spelling out in a bylaw or something the kind of infractions that would warrant uh, a recall, for example, like moral turpitude or uh, committ committing a felony negligence. or is it simply like totally open to uh the select board's

interpretation essentially three out of the five people. Um sure I can I can address that. Um, so this is a uh one um area that I've worked with town council on the last uh two days um and because I've seen it both ways and town council's recommendation is um that the that whoever is filing the uh recall petition just has to state their reason why. So leaving it fairly broad but needing to articulate what their reasoning is. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Um, and I I'll just say that I agree with a lot of the comments that are made. I think there is concern about concentrating too much power in the select board. I think something that makes me, you know, maybe feel a little bit better about that is the fact that we do have other boards, committees like the zoning board of appeals, uh, committee preservation that have a lot of authority and they have been appointed. Um, and so that is something that, you know, has already been taking place, um, in our town government. And then in terms of the charter review and there being some mechanism either for accountability for the select board or any u any member in town government um you know I completely agree with that and in our goal setting meeting last September we talked about this uh exact issue and talked about there needing to be a charter review. And what we decided, and this is just more for the public uh to know, is what we decided was that um the last charter review occurred in 2017. And so it would be appropriate for another charter review to occur 10 years after. And so that's why we kind of made an announcement after that goal setting meeting during one of our select board meetings that you know while we can't guarantee if any of us will actually be on the select board uh you know in 2027 that that is what we are recommending

that the select board at that time uh you know take up a charter review um and that that amount of time 10 years that will have you know gone gone by from 2017 you know hopefully we can have learned enough seen enough uh where uh folks in town can make, you know, uh good recommendations or have a more informed discussion about what uh we would want changed in our in our town's charter. Um great. So, and I think also, you know, uh Yeah, Josh. Oh, go ahead. Oh, okay. Um well, I was gonna kind of roll on something a little bit different if you wanted to touch on that quickly. Nope. Okay. Um, yeah. So, I think, you know, also the select board has only talked about this incident with Mr. Gun and what's been occurring when we voted on the letter uh asking him to resign and we haven't really had a ch chance to talk about, you know, why we're actually here tonight on June 11th on a Wednesday night having the special meeting. Um, and just I just want to take a, you know, a second to kind of lay out what has occurred uh from when this incident first occurred with uh Mr. gun trespassing on the Acho's property on January 7th just so that folks understand the steps that we've taken and uh you know what has kind of been going on. So after the incident on uh January 7th um the Acho reached out to the planning board chair and made her aware that an incident had occurred. And you know what needs to be said and I said this at uh the last select board meeting was that in Massachusetts when an incident or an issue happens with an elected official the body that the elected official sits on is the body that can take the harshest measure against that elected official. So usually that body is the one that addresses it. And so also it also needs to be said that this is you know

completely unchartered territory for us. Uh we've never had to deal with anything like this. And um you know and obviously the Achoas as well have never had to deal with anything like this. And so um you know after January 7th um onwards the planning board chair and the AchoAs were in contact with each other and I think both were trying to figure out what options were available what steps could be taken. Um on or around March 16th, the AchoAs emailed over a official complaint about the matter. And at that point, the planning board chair uh reached out to the chief administrative officer of the town of Long Meadow, which is our town manager, Lynn Simmons, and you know, made her aware of this and also asked for guidance on you know, how to move forward with this. And so at that point, the town manager looped me in as the select board chair. and we kind of discussed how we should handle this and what our next step should be. And what we decided was that we should take an opportunity to meet with both the AchoAs and also Mr. Gun and get their version of uh you know what had happened and to get gather more information. And so um first the Tom Andrew and I met with the Achoas on um on or around April 16th and um that in that meeting the information that they provided uh corroborated and um really spoke to what we had already assessed um as you know had occurred on that on that on January 7th where you know Mr. gun had trespassed onto their property and had made uh racist statements towards Mr. Choa. Um all kind of under the guise of acting under you know governmental authority uh as a planning board member. Um and the there was something that the

Achoas shared with us at that meeting and that was that uh Mr. Gun had said to Mr. AOA uh that night on January 7th that he had been arrested previously for trespassing. And so that was the first time that the town manager or myself or anyone on the town side became aware that there may have been prior incidents. And so after that uh we made a records request to the Long Meadow Police Department uh for any reports relating to Mr. Gun and we received a police report from 2014 that was also a uh a trespassing incident. And that report has been um you know covered in I think mass live Republican shoestring that have all done articles about this um and that incident. After that uh we the Tom Andrew and I both met with Mr. Gun on May 2nd. Um, we talked through the incident with him, asked him for his um, you know, version of events and, um, you know, I'm I I I think I can speak for the time Andrew here where we, you know, it kind of was clear during the meeting that, uh, Mr. Gun did not understand the severity of what he had done um, and the consequences of it. And so, um, in that meeting as well, um, he explained that when he was at the Choah's house on January 7th, he offered a fake name, Walter Jones. We asked him, you know, why he had done that, and he said because he had been caught trespassing so many times before that he had learned to give a fake name to avoid getting in trouble. Um and so that also you know kind of obviously that caused great concern uh for us. Um towards the end of the meeting um I as I said it became it was clear that

Mr. Gun didn't understand the consequences of his actions or what he had done. At the end of that meeting I told Mr. Gun how the town manager and I perceived what he had done. Um, I explained to him how the public would most likely respond to what he had done. Um, and I told him that the way that these incidents um, usually resolve is that the person resigns and, uh, Mr. Gun didn't respond to that. Um, after that, the town manager uh, informed the planning board chair about our meetings with the Achoas and also Mr. gun and then the planning board moved to have a special meeting uh a week later on May 9th where they handed out the harshest penalty that they could which was a public censure. Um after that, Mr. Gun still did not resign. Um and then at our next select board meeting on May 19th, I put forward a letter asking for his resignation. the rest of the select board adopted that letter and we asked for his resignation. Um, a few days later an article came out in the shoestring and Mr. gun had told the shoestring that he was going to release a statement and I was waiting for that statement cuz since we asked him for his resignation I wanted to give him a chance to respond and you know that response never came and then his first public statements were last uh Wednesday on June 4th at the planning board meeting and at that planning board meeting he stated that he has no intention of resigning and also his behavior throughout that meeting was completely out of bounds, was completely unacceptable. Um, the way that he treated other planning board members, the way that he treated town residents, uh, making physical contact with the

town resident, um, and the way he treated our staff was completely unacceptable. So, the next day, um, it became clear that he was not going to resign and that this behavior was a pattern that was potentially escalating. And so, you know, the town manager and I started exploring these options and um you know, that is why we're here tonight. Um because um I will also say that watching that planning board meeting last week um I I just I don't know how they can function uh moving forward in that environment. I also don't want to see our staff, our town residents, and our plan board members in that environment. Um it was a to me I mean it looked like a very unsafe environment. Um and and for me I I felt like we had to take some type of action here. Um, and you know, I I do want to say too that when the town manager and I met with the AchoAs at the end of that meeting, they told us that they had some hesitancy in coming forward because they were worried that the, you know, town government would kind of brush this off to the side or not take it seriously. Um, which obviously is understandable but very sad to hear. And what I will say is that what the Achos have told us, you know, recently is that they feel like the town manager and myself uh that we have acted decisively here and that we've acted with fairness um and that you know they that we I think we have acted in a way that they weren't necessarily expecting or um their town government to respond uh in that way. Um, but I think it is absolutely necessary here that we do

this. You know, none of us are here because we uh want to be dealing with an issue like this, right? We're we're all here for public service because we want to make our schools better and our town safer and u make our town work smarter. And I know that none of us take any pleasure in this, but I think this is a moment that we have to meet and this is something that we have to address and we cannot let this uh let this go by us. Yeah, Josh. Uh uh I'll move that we place option two for the uh changing the planning board to an appointed on the warrant for July 15, 2025. Second. Okay. Uh any further discussion? Oh, quickly. So uh just just on so on your comment veneath about just the the safety can I comment just to what you were talking about or okay um just in terms because I watched the the planning board meeting as well and I got to tell you I I'm I personally don't feel safe like being in a you know being in a a public meeting uh with someone with the history like Mr. Mr. gun has shown and certainly physically putting his hands on somebody and the way that he's treating his staff, the reporters, the news reporters, the reminder. Um, I think that that this calls for having um police presence at future select board meetings as well as planning board meetings or or any other meetings because I I don't feel personally I don't feel safe and and I can't speak for for others at the planning board or on this committee or on this board, but I think that's

something that the town should look into. Um, if Mr. gun is previously threatening people with a gun on their property, trespassing, putting his hands on residents who are speaking out against his terrible actions, then we should be having a police presence or security at these meetings. Um, and that's just that's just my opinion, but I did want to make sure that I I spoke out for that. Thank you, Dan. Um, anything else? I didn't mean to cut you off, Anne. Uh, thank you for that for explaining. I think think that was uh very well put and I I hope it will uh I know it was uh enlightening to me on the timeline. I hope it was for other people too. I didn't mean to uh cut you off like that. Move on. No, I get it. You're you're at baseball game. Um, anyone else? Okay. Uh, Peggy, do a roll call vote. All right. Andrew Lamb, yes. Josh Lavine, yes. Danco, yes. Shelley Mayard Dwolf, yes. Venita Mabati, yes. All right, great. Thank you. And uh I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Just one second if you could. Sorry. I I um just wanted to address I know that there has been a lot of um inquiry into my office and to individual select board members just looking to make public comment on this. Um and I know we've been telling people uh this special meeting are traditionally we do not offer public comment during special meetings. Uh the next select board meeting is June 16th. There is a resident comment section of that meeting. Uh and additionally this uh recording of this meeting will be posted to the uh select board agenda for this meeting either later tonight or um certainly by the end of the day tomorrow. Yeah. Great. Thank you, Lyn. Yep. So, our next select board meeting is Monday night and folks, we usually do resident comment at the top of the

meeting and folks can uh join either in person or via Zoom to make comments and we always welcome folks to join make comments. Is it possible to get this meeting put on the LCTV uh YouTube page as well? Yes, we'll work on that. Yep. Thank you, Josh. Um, okay. Uh, so I think I said I was entertaining a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Okay. Second. All right. Uh, any further discussion? Okay. Uh, Peggy, good night. Oh, no. Sorry. You got to do a roll call vote here. Sorry. I love it. Andrew Lamb, yes. Josh Leavine, yes. Danco, yes. Shelley Mayard Dwolf, yes. Mathy, yes. Thank you. All right. Great. Thank you all so much for joining. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Bye.