Select Board Executive Session Meeting Minutes 5/26/21

Executive Session Meeting Minutes of 5/26/21

Steve Weisz made a motion to go into Executive Session as per MGL Chapter 30A, Section 21.1.  The motion was seconded and approved 2-1 with John voting no as he did not feel the proper procedure was followed, as the potential of going into an Executive Session had not been listed on the publicly available agenda.  The Board confirmed it will return to open session once finished.  Roll Call:  John yes, Steve, yes and Justin, yes.  The Board entered executive session at 6:46pm.

The purpose of today’s executive session is to discuss a request made by the Conservation Commission to place a disciplinary letter into former employee, Kim Wetherell’s personnel file.  Town Counsel’s recommendation is as follows, “My recommendation is that the matter be addressed in an executive session, and that the Board decline to place anything in her file, as she has resigned and the issues are moot.”

Justin was disappointed with counsel’s opinion because of its lack of really getting at the questions that were asked of Town Counsel, and felt that it could have done a better job at explaining and making reference to the relevant laws on which he was basing his opinion.  Steve said in his personal opinion as a non-attorney is that this whole unfortunate affair really seemed to be less about an employee but rather a big squabble and basically issuing this disciplinary letter after someone has resigned does not seem to be germane to someone’s employment.

A motion was made to not include the disciplinary letter in Kim’s file.  Justin seconded the motion.  The motion passed 2-1 with John voting no.

The Board returned to open session at 6:57pm by unanimous vote.