UNDERHILL — Town residents overwhelmingly ousted Peter Duval as a member of the Underhill Selectboard in a 570-23 vote Tuesday.
The recall capped a more than yearlong effort to remove Duval, whom town staff members accused of abusing his position and of bullying town officials.
Duval contended the recall effort was a smear campaign led by Underhill residents who were out to get him from the day he was elected. In an email after the results came in, he indicated he is glad to be out of office.
“Landslide! What a relief,” he wrote.
Duval’s termination is immediate.
“I’m so overwhelmed by how many people came out to vote,” said Underhill Town Clerk Sherri Morin, who spearheaded the effort to remove Duval. Almost a quarter of the town’s 2,578 registered voters cast ballots on the issue.
“The attitude in Underhill has already changed,” Morin said Wednesday morning. “Now that this is over, people feel they can move forward and get the town’s work done.”
Standing in front of the Underhill Town Hall during Tuesday’s voting, Duval seemed to hope that he could stay in office, saying there was “still a chance.” Duval said he would be happy if townspeople voted to keep him in office, as that would mean they were able to “see through the smoke.” He also indicated he may run for office again in the future.
But once the results came in, he said he was relieved to be removed from the board, and it’s been difficult to deal with the “freeze-out” from town officials and employees, who he said wouldn’t respond to his emails and were subtly aggressive toward him.
The selectboard will now invite letters of interest from people interested in filling the vacant selectboard seat. The board plans to choose an interim board member, who would serve until town elections in March.
Former and current town staff members, including Morin, complained that Duval violated the selectboard’s conflict of interest policy, abused his position, and was condescending and disrespectful toward town staff.
“Our ability to work is routinely disrupted or stalled by [Duval’s] aggressively suspicious and counterproductive efforts, which appear to be motivated by a long-simmering dislike and distrust of the town government,” wrote four town staff members in a letter dated August 2020 to Dan Steinbauer, the selectboard chair, and Dean Haller, human resources consultant for Underhill.
It took an elaborate process for voters to remove Duval from office. It started in August 2020, when Morin petitioned to alter the town charter to allow townspeople to remove elected officials before the end of their term. Residents approved the charter change on Town Meeting Day in March.
Shortly afterward, Morin and other townspeople circulated a petition to hold the recall vote and succeeded in putting the issue on Tuesday’s ballot.
Morin said she wanted to remove Duval from office because his behavior was making it difficult for Underhill’s government to function.
In the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote, several Underhill residents posted on Front Porch Forum arguing for Duval’s ouster.
James Beebe-Woodard posted about working briefly as Underhill’s town administrator from July to December 2020.
“Despite coming to the job extremely well-qualified and with tremendous enthusiasm, I left the job rather abruptly because of Selectman Duval’s abusive behavior toward town staff,” Beebe-Woodard wrote.
Ellen Arrowsmith, who’s lived in Underhill for seven years, was among the residents who said they voted for Duval’s ouster.
“I don’t think our town has been able to function as well as it needs to,” she said as she exited the polling area Tuesday. “I hope that this is a step towards us functioning better.”
