Selectmen Vote To Censure Fellow Member

Selectmen on Wednesday expressed strong disapproval of statements by fellow Selectman Glenn Kessler in March, when he questioned the fairness of town Recreation Department Director Danielle Strauss's past selection of young people for summer jobs.

A majority of the selectmen — they voted 3-1 — said the public meeting was an inappropriate place for the criticism and inappropriate to do so when the director was not there to defend herself.

Earlier in Wednesday's meeting the director asked for an apology on behalf of all town employees. She said the selectman's allegations about her showing favoritism were untrue and showed disrespect for employees by making embarrasing remarks about one of them in public.

Selectman David Van Dam said Wednesday's discussion of the matter went far enough and a censure was unnecessary.

He said he did not think that signing the censure letter or slapping Selectman Kessler on the hand would make employees in town feel better.

The other board members offered Kessler an opportunity to avoid the censure vote by apologizing.

The selectman did not. He said his remarks during the Selectmen's time portion of the meeting on March 20 reflected what people had told him before he ran for office and after he was elected in 2012.

He said he had spoken with the town administrator previously to try to arrange for a process that would address those concerns.

He said his remarks were factual not personal, and were not made to call into question the competency of any town official or employee.

The town administrator said he and the selectman had talked about the matter but it had been adequately addressed and he did not think that there was merit to the allegations.

He said that if he thought an employee was using the power of a town position for retribution or to coerce people then that person would not be working for the town.

Selectmen voted 3-1 to censure the selectman. Rich Malagrifa, Barry Greenfield and Jill Sullivan voted for the censure. David Van Dam against it. Glenn Kessler did not vote.

After the meeting, Selectman Kessler said he thought the board's action was politically motivated. He said it was sad and reflected deep divisions on the board.

Residents spoke both in support of Strauss and in defense of Kessler.

Mary Ellen Fletcher said selectmen had, a year ago, when Matt Strauss was chairman, publicly muddied the reputation of a town employee and set a precedence for selectmen talking about employees.

She was referring to remarks made about town Harbormaster Larry Bithell. 

On Wednesday the chairman, Rich Malagrifa, apologized to the recreation director for letting the remarks and subsequent conversation take place.

He said he, as chairman, should have cut it off as soon as it started.

Correction: In a previous version of this story we incorrectly stated that Mary Ellen Fletcher said the board was taking an unfair action by censuring the selectman. Fletcher said in an email that she did not use the word censure and had no idea the option was on the table. We removed the sentence from the article and apologize for the mistake.