BARTON — Selectboard members in this Orleans County town are skirting open-meeting laws by communicating through their clerk, manipulating meeting minutes to avoid public blowback and allegedly failing to disclose their private employment of town employees.
Those allegations were brought against the Barton Selectboard on Tuesday by resident Ken Mitchell-Eby, a disgruntled resident who sparred with the town’s two selectboard members throughout the evening.
Tensions were running high even before the meeting started.
Chair Bob Croteau showed up an hour late, and no one else had a key to the town office. When it finally began, Mitchell-Eby and Croteau squabbled over whether the chair had violated open meeting laws.
Then, Croteau revealed that he learned about the resignation of board member Paul Sicard from a Barton Chronicle reporter. Mitchell-Eby accused Sicard of signing off on payments for bills from the town lister, Allison Lyon, without disclosing that she works for his family’s construction business.
Mitchell-Eby accused the board of violating public meeting law by communicating illegally by email. He pointed to a June 25 email sent by Selectboard Clerk Andrée Reno Sanborn, which was provided to VTDigger.
“In order to avoid quorum difficulties, the Selectboard uses the clerk as a ‘go-between,’ so if one member wants to say something to the other members, he sends the message to me and I distribute it,” Sanborn wrote in the email to board members.
Vermont law bars a majority of a public body from discussing government business outside an open meeting, except in certain cases. The majority, or quorum, is based on how many positions the public body has. For the Barton Selectboard, the quorum is two.
Mitchell-Eby also accused the selectboard of sanitizing meeting minutes by excluding comments that reflected negatively on the board or could cause conflict.
He referenced another email sent by Sanborn, also given to VTDigger, in which the board clerk wrote that she planned not to include a state trooper who had attended the June 18 meeting in the list of those present.
“I have to put Andy in the minutes because of the motion,” Sanborn wrote to board members. “But rightly or wrongly, I’m not putting the state trooper on the list, even tho he did speak to the Board, because it would cause unneeded gossip. If anybody objects to this, let me know.”
The June 18 minutes describe an unnamed Vermont State Police trooper speaking to the board, but the document does not include the trooper in the list of attendees.
Mitchell-Eby also complained about a recent discussion between Croteau, the chair’s wife — town Zoning Administrator Joyce Croteau — and a lister, Allison Lyon.
The resident said town officials had told him the trio met behind closed doors, without recording their meeting, and he believed that violated open meeting laws.
Croteau denied the door was closed and batted back the accusations of impropriety.
“I think you’re trying to stir up emotion or controversy or hate where there is none, and that’s unfortunate,” Croteau told Mitchell-Eby. “I came in, I did speak with my wife, I did speak with Allison, and I don’t think that violates anything that I’m aware of.”
He raised his voice and added: “As far as what I said to my wife, I don’t think it’s any of your business.”
Croteau said he had talked with Lyon about budget questions pertaining to the town but said that conversation didn’t qualify as a discussion of town business.
He said he didn’t believe their conversation constituted a meeting, and he pointed out that open meeting laws apply to quorums of one public body — and he, his wife and Lyon serve on separate town bodies.
Mitchell-Eby said he was concerned about the conversation because Lyon is part of the town’s development review board, which he said works closely with Joyce Croteau, the zoning administrator. Mitchell-Eby said there was the potential for a conflict of interest.
Later in the meeting, Croteau and board member Doug Swanson decided they would notify several candidates for a vacancy on the development review board that the process would be postponed because of Sicard’s apparent resignation.
Previously, Mitchell-Eby had contacted Vermont’s Attorney General’s Office and alleged, among other things, that Sicard hadn’t disclosed that Lyon works for his family business, J.P. Sicard, and had continued to participate in town business related to Lyon, such as signing pay requests.
Paul Sicard is listed as the secretary of J.P. Sicard in state records. The business’ phone office directory does not include any person named Allison or Lyon. A call to the company’s listed number was not picked up.
