PLANNIING BOARD RESIGNATION

The following letter was originally sent to the Board of Selectmen

HONORABLE CHAIRMAN WILLAUER AND MEMBERS OF THE BOARD:

It grieves me to inform you that I am resigning from my appointment as an Alternate to the Planning Board.

When I initially applied for the appointment, my intention was to help address several long range problems currently facing our community. I had hoped that I would be able to bring more discussion on concepts and elements for the 4181-d Master Plan. And I hoped that we could begin a dialogue on what we want for our community, and what we need, and see if the two could find common ground.

As you may or may not be aware, there have been a number of ongoing issues with the Planning Board's conduct in general, and towards the alternates specifically which I have been, and still am, powerless to resolve. In order to make the causes of my choice to resign clear, I shall enumerate these issues for you.

September 25, about two months into my appointment, I had to leave the meeting for medical reasons. I returned the following meeting to find out that the Planning Board (the board) had voted to send all three alternate members a letter rebuking us for our attendance. When this letter finally arrived, it had mysteriously expanded to include accusations of racial bias, hostility, inappropriate behavior, being under the influence at meetings, and a host of other items.

An important distinction to make is that there were no specific charges leveled against any of the three of us specifically, but accusations were made without any proof whatsoever, and with a total denial of due process.

Upon a review of all communication regarding this issue, it appears that the board worked around the open meeting law by directing commentary to the planning director. While this may be legal, I am distressed that we were excluded from the process.

In the subsequent meetings over the course of the next few months, I was shown fantastical displays of shouting. There have been frequent lapses in protocol, and on two instances that I know of members have spoken in or taken action on hearings after recusing themselves. Most recently, there have been several charges of conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest against members of the board. And there was some consternation over the use of a cluster subdivision on the chairman's former property.

These things, when each taken by themselves, are merely an annoyance and can be dealt with in the appropriate fashion. Altogether, they add up to stress and a general sense of mistrust. It is certainly not an environment that is conducive to inclusive participation.

I should inform you that my resignation would have come much sooner than this. However, there were several hearings I had been activated on and so I stayed to complete my obligation to the applicants. I also stayed on in the hope that some of the outstanding issues could be resolved in an amenable fashion. I have since realized that this will not occur.

In conclusion, I thank you for the opportunity to serve my community and I wish you every success in the future.

Sincerely,

- Jason Flanagan