Select Board Chair Plans to Kick Sitting Members Off The Economic Development Committee Tonight

Photo by Ashley Jurius on Unsplash

A concern about appointed boards is that they're susceptible to coercion: the members aren't independently elected and aren't free to act -- they can be removed and replaced.

Will the Select Board prove the case by removing Economic Development Committee members before their term ends tonight?

The Economic Development Committee presently has seven members; three have terms that will end at the end of June.  

The EDC is presently an ad-hoc committee created by the Select Board.   At town meeting in May the town adopted a bylaw to make in a permanent five-member committee.   

That new bylaw is still being reviewed by the Attorney General's office, who may not approve it until well into August -- there's no need to alter this committee until then.

The Select Board discussed how to handle reappointments on June 6th, and will discuss it again tonight.    Here's the video from June 6th.

Jason Allison noted that he has personal differences with some of the members and wants to open the entire committee up to reshuffling.   He wants to remove members that he doesn't feel reflect his views.

Alix Turner noted that it made sense to let the terms that would expire, expire.  That would leave one seat to fill.  

Stephen Kerrigan wanted to continue the item to get more info; that's ultimately what they did on the 6th.

Removing sitting committee members before their term ends, without a hearing, would be a big and divisive step -- is it one they'll take tonight?   

Although Allison stated on the 6th that the committee has no authority, the town is going to propose a 40R district where applications would be heard by a 5-member "Plan Approval Authority" composed of five members from five committees -- one member would be from the Economic Development Committee.

The agenda item is under section VIII on the Select Board agenda tonight; their meeting starts at 6PM.