CALAIS — Trust and transparency have seen better days in town, according to concerned residents who confronted a Select Board juggling personnel and public relations problems during a special meeting Monday.
On a night when the short list of people the town employs got a little shorter, and the list of vacancies — one more than six months old — a little longer, the board was questioned and criticized for what some view as its too-liberal use of executive session.
“I think if you were more open with us — and we are ‘us’ and you (board members) are ‘you,’ and that’s the way it’s set up right now,” resident Marilyn Bush lamented even as Selectman John Brabant was interrupting her.
Bush didn’t let him.
“We do not have a good relationship,” Bush said. “This sucks. This sucks.”
Bush’s two-word assessment, prompted a two-word reply from Chair Sharon Winn-Fannon, who also relied on repetition.
“We’re done,” Winn-Fannon declared. “We’re done. We’re done. This is done. Everybody who wanted to speak and raise an issue has, and this has deteriorated quickly, and we have other business to do.”
Other residents had also complained they weren’t fully heard and one questioned the necessity of a three-minute time limit.
Then residents were asked to wait outside Town Hall while the board discussed an undisclosed personnel matter in executive session.
When the board emerged, Winn-Fannon explained the town’s just-appointed public works director, Erik Oberlin, had resigned and a search for his successor would be launched immediately.
Oberlin, who attended the meeting and briefed the board on the status of the road crew and its equipment, said he’d accepted a better offer from the state that was more in line with his “professional background.”
In the short-term, Winn-Fannon said Oberlin had agreed to serve as acting road commissioner for the purposes of “crew oversight and leadership,” while board member Rick Kehne will retain a similar title but will focus exclusively on fielding road-related questions from citizens.
Both, she stressed, are “volunteer” positions designed to fill the void created by the recent resignation of the town’s veteran road commissioner Alfred Larrabee.
Larrabee recently suggested Oberlin’s hiring, coupled with the resignation of former operations manager Toby Talbot, fueled his decision to step down after having worked for the town for 25 years.
Larrabee’s final day on the job was Sept. 29 and what happened that day has had the rumor mill spinning in Calais and taken on a life of its own on social media.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Winn-Fannon said she was aware of the things that were being said, wasn’t at the town garage on Sept. 29, and hadn’t spoken to anyone who was.
“No one I have heard from was actually there,” she said.
Brabant was, and he sought to scuttle rumors he’d done everything from confiscating keys from town employees to turning away well-wishers and turning off the internet.
None of that happened, according to Brabant, who said he met with Larrabee at the town garage, asked Talbot, who was there at the time to step outside, and then asked Larrabee for his town-issued laptop and cellphone, along with the associated passwords.
Brabant said it took about 10 minutes and was subsequently “misrepresented on Front Porch Forum and amplified by people who weren’t there.”
“Nobody was ‘kicked out,’” he said. “Residents were not kicked out. A bunch of residents gathered to wish Alfred (Larrabee) well (and) I drove away with the cellphone and the laptop.”
While Brabant was relaying the story, he spotted Gail Graham shaking her head and insisted he had proof.
“I had it tape recorded,” he said. “Because of this kind of stuff, I had it tape recorded, so I’m protected.”
Graham wasn’t impressed and said she remained skeptical.
“You have the power to sit there at this table and be able to provide your side of the story, but the people that were there may not have that because you oversee them,” she told Brabant.
Selectman Marc Mihaly said he appreciated a previously expressed concern about the need to prevent further defections from a road crew that residents were later told just hired a new member, though, that person doesn’t yet have a commercial driver’s license. Mihaly also stressed Larrabee’s departure wasn’t part of a plan cooked up by the board in executive session.
“Obviously, the relationship with Alfie (Larrabee) was somewhat fraught at times,” Mihaly said. “(But) it was not our intention to replace him. It was no our intention that he leave the job. We thought it (Oberlin’s hiring) would be an improvement for him. He disagreed. He resigned.”
Anne Toolan said she was concerned executive sessions are being over-used and said she worried board members were losing track of what they have and haven’t shared with the public. That, she said, is a problem.
“You all might think that you’re sharing things with the public that are actually happening in executive session and then being bothered that the citizens are saying: ‘Where did this come from?’” Toolan said.
Toolan said she believed the creation of the public works director position fell into that category.
The trust level is so low that a recent cluster of vehicles parked at the town offices prompted an inquiry about what some feared was an unwarned board meeting last Wednesday. They were assured that it wasn’t. Two members — Brabant and Denise Wheeler — were present along with other witnesses who were meeting with the town’s lawyer in preparation for a pending court case involving a horse-related enforcement action.
“It was not a meeting of the board,” Winn-Fannon said.
david.delcore @timesargus.com
