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Select Board debates complaint process and investigation pool in ethics ordinance update
Summary
Board members discussed proposed ethics-commission language including whether a designated complaint recipient or a liaison should receive complaints, whether investigators must be chosen from a volunteer pool, and whether the select board should reserve final decision-making authority.
The board reviewed proposed language for a municipal ethics-complaint process. One member favored a simple approach that keeps the select board as the ultimate decision-maker and uses a liaison to receive complaints; another argued for a designated complaint recipient and a pool of trained investigators to conduct fact-finding. The draft ordinance calls for a pool of volunteers from which investigators would be selected on a case-by-case basis; some members said the pool should be broader and usable for other types of local investigations beyond ethics complaints.
Speakers emphasized the distinction between fact-finding investigators and the select board’s role in making determinations. "Investigations should be fact finding," one member said, adding that "the decision comes back to the board." The board discussed whether to require three investigators for fact‑finding panels or to allow a smaller team, and debated adding explicit language that the select board reserves the right to choose investigators from inside or outside the pool in cases of perceived conflicts of interest.
