DeRensis recommends public hearing for alternates
BY PETER B. BRACE
Town Counsel Paul DeRensis is recommending that the Planning Board hold a hearing so its three alternates can respond to the board's grievances against them as outlined in an Oct. 23 letter.

In a Nov. 21 email he sent to Planning Board members, the Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator Libby Gibson, DeRensis said Planning Board Alternates Charity Benz, Jason Flanagan and John Wagley should be afforded the right to speak to the board on their behalf.

"With regard to the reputational interests of the Planning Board Alternates, we recommend that the Planning Board Alternates be provided with a formal hearing that gives them an opportunity for those Alternates who choose to do so to respond to the issues presented in the Planning Board letter," DeRensis said in his email.

That letter, written by Vice Chairman Frank Spriggs for the Planning Board, is a reprimand of sorts for what the board perceives as inappropriate behavior by its three alternate members. In it, the board alleges that all of the Planning Board alternates had been "arriving and leaving the meetings at will, without notifications to the Chairman or Staff."

It also charged that one of the three alternates 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 noted that Benz sat at the table humming during the meeting.

The letter also stated that the Planning Board 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.

Benz, Flanagan and Wagley refuted the board's allegations and decried the manner in which they were made: by a blanket letter naming none of them specifically, but implying each was guilty of all infractions. A formal hearing proposal from DeRensis was well received by all of the alternates as evidenced in their Nov. 21 and 22 reply emails to DeRensis and Selectmen Chairman Whitey Willauer.

"Thank you for these recommendations," said Benz."I am in complete support of a public hearing."

And so is Flanagan.

"I am in complete agreement regarding a public hearing," he said. "It is something that should have occurred prior to the sending of the letter dated 10/23."

Wagley qualified his response in agreement with his compatriots by saying that the Planning Board members should first identify who did what.

"A defense will, however, have to await the untying of our arms from behind our backs by the accusers supplying us with the specifics of the who, what, where and how of the multiple accusations launched against us."

Planning Director Andrew Vorce said yesterday that the Planning Board has yet to schedule such a hearing for the board's alternates to formally respond to charges leveled against them. That is likely to happen at the Dec. 11 meeting.

If the board chooses not to hold such a hearing, DeRensis suggested that the selectmen could organize one since it is the government body that appointed the alternates to the board.

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