Schism between Planning Board, alternates widens
BY PETER B. BRACE
An Oct. 23 letter sent by the Planning Board to its three alternates alleges poor attendance and inappropriate behavior by the alternates at Planning Board meetings and around staff members.

After two paragraphs outlining the alternates' responsibilities and their level of participation in Planning Board meetings, the board outlined its specific complaints.

"All of you have been in the practice of arriving and leaving the meetings at will, without notifications to the Chairman or Staff," said Planning Board Vice Chairman Frank Spriggs in the letter on behalf of the rest of the board.

The letter also charges that one of the three alternates - Charity Benz, Jason Flanagan or John Wagley - might have been under the influence more than once, that alternates' meeting behavior is distracting, including, whispering, reading newspapers at the table, conducting private business activities and sleeping. After the Oct. 30 Planning Board meeting, Spriggs remarked that Benz sat at the table humming during the meeting and staff members said they always had to clean up her trash after meetings.

In dealing with its staff, the board said in its letter that the alternates have been hostile and disrespectful to staff members with inappropriate phone calls, racial biasing, failure to sign Planning Board decisions in a timely manner, unprofessional refutation of staff research, public criticism of the board's actions and a lack of participation in Planning Board matters.

Shortly after the board's meeting on Monday night, Flanagan confronted Spriggs and the rest of the board about the mention in the letter on racial biasing, telling Spriggs that he was not a racist and that the board defamed him by making such a blanket statement. After Spriggs refused to comply with Flanagan's repeated requests to retract the letter in reference to his alternate performance and publicly apologize to him and the other two alternates, Flanagan then told the board he would take other actions to clear his name.

Reached by cell phone Flanagan declined to speak on the record about the letter. Benz and Wagley could not be reached for comment.

At the Sept. 25 Planning Board meeting, the board voted 4-0 to have its staff draft a letter to send to the alternates. The letter was signed by Spriggs. The impetus for this written reprimand stemmed from the Sept. 25 meeting when there was a special permit application to be reviewed that two of three alternates had already been there for.

The board said that one alternate for the Sept. 25 meeting was needed to sit on a certain hearing and had to be tracked down to get that person to the meeting. And one alternate left that meeting during the public hearings and the other two before the meeting ended, according to the letter.

At the end of the letter, the board encouraged the alternates to contact the Planning Board Chairman to have him put this issue on an upcoming agenda so it can be discussed at an open meeting and stressed the virtues of professionalism among its alternates.

"We must all be mindful of the fact that we are elected or appointed officials to serve the general public, and as such, we must project a professional appearance at all times, both physically and verbally," said Spriggs for the board in the Oct. 23 letter.

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