Select Board moves into executive session to reconsider cemetery overseer appointment

The Select Board of South Thomaston called its July 2 meeting to order and voted to enter an executive session to reconsider the June 23 appointment of the cemetery overseer.

The board’s presiding officer, identified in the transcript as the Chair, opened the meeting and led the Pledge of Allegiance before proposing an adjustment to the agenda to include reconsideration of the cemetery overseer appointment. A Select Board member moved that the board "enter executive sec set in accordance with MRSA 1 paragraph 4056 a to discuss a personal enrollment," and another Select Board member seconded the motion. The Chair called for a vote and the board approved moving into executive session.

The Chair stated there would be no public comment during the executive session but said that the person identified in the transcript as "Penny" would be allowed to have a representative. A board member told the meeting they had prepared notes about the past and future history of the overseer position and asked that those notes be part of the public record; the Chair replied that because this concerns a personnel matter, whether notes are released would depend on their content.

After the motion passed, the Chair instructed members of the public and nonessential attendees to exit the room (and for remote participants to leave the public meeting space) while the board met in executive session. The public portion of the transcript ends with logistical checks on recording and Zoom before the board entered executive session.

No vote tally or further public action was recorded in the public transcript. The motion cited a statutory exception (MRSA 1 paragraph 4056 a) allowing the board to meet privately to discuss personnel matters.