Selectboard holds hearing but stands by earlier removal of Planning Commission member Rama Schneider

The Williamstown Selectboard on Jan. 12 held a public hearing to review its Dec. 22, 2025 decision to rescind the appointment of Planning Commission member Rama Schneider after town staff relayed concerns from the Office of the Vermont Lieutenant Governor about repeated hostile communications. Chair Larry Hebert said the lieutenant governor's chief of staff had contacted town staff about what he described as "behavior unbecoming of an appointed public official," and Hebert read three emails attributed to Schneider dated April 11, May 20 and Dec. 13, 2025 outlining the complaints.

Schneider addressed the board at the hearing and said he "wholeheartedly stood behind my statements; they might not be liked in how they were said or that they were said but I meant every intent of them." He told the board he has a long record of community service in Williamstown and argued that the town's Code of Ethics does not cover private political speech. The board reiterated that the rescission vote was taken at an executive session on Dec. 22 because staff had documented roughly a dozen incidents over about ten months; the Selectboard said the repeated nature of the communications made the matter more serious than a single exchange and that members did not want to put the individual "on display." The hearing ended at 7:00 p.m. with no change to the prior decision.