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Select Board responds to open-meeting-law complaints, offers process for agenda requests
Summary
Chair Susan Ford read the board's response to complaints alleging Open Meeting Law violations and said the boards plan to address citizen requests by adding them to regular agendas; the board denied any violation but invited citizens to submit questions for written answers.
The Select Board addressed two open-meeting-law complaints during the meeting and read a prepared response outlining the board's view.
Chair Susan Ford read that the board had received a complaint from Allison Taylor alleging the board had violated Vermont's open meeting law by not placing requested items on a regular meeting agenda; Ford said there is no statutory requirement to include citizen requests for agenda items and noted that no regular meeting agenda had been posted since the requests. She also summarized a complaint from Nicholas Selden about being unable to ask questions at the conclusion of an open-meeting-law training session and said VLCT had advised that the training could have been done privately though the town chose to hold it in an open meeting. "While the boards deny any violation of open meeting law," Ford said, and she offered a process whereby Mr. Seldin may submit his question to the chair for an answer at the next meeting if appropriate.
The remarks drew strong reaction from a member of the public who disputed the board's characterization of the training and the chair's account; the board declined to reopen the matter at the special meeting but said it would address outstanding questions at future meetings and include citizen requests on regular agendas for transparency.
