Alna residents Oct. 6 continued to ask for a first selectman’s election, and a later vote than proposed for a petition question to change how selectmen are elected and serve.
If the board won’t call an election to fill the seat, empty since Melissa Spinney resigned last spring, the townspeople can petition for one a notary could call, former selectman Doug Baston said over Zoom in the hybrid meeting. He said he couldn’t imagine this step would be needed.
Mike Trask said the special town meeting the board was considering for the petition question would be “a great time” to also elect the first selectman, and the board could time the special town meeting to meet the legal time frame to call an election. Why doesn’t the board, he asked. Third Selectman Charles Culbertson said there were opinions on both sides, to which Trask said he hadn’t heard anyone at the meetings say they didn’t want an election.
The board of two again explained it followed advice to wait and now the March elections draw near. Second Selectman Linda Kristan said she will be very excited to have a third board member. The board has gotten by with two members before, she added. “And that’s the way it has played out this time.”
The board again tabled a remote meetings policy, after new feedback. Baston said civility comes from talking eye to eye, not through a screen. He said, to help the town come back together, the board should make it hard to meet or comment remotely.
Carrie Kipfer asked for the policy to make clear, a selectman taking part remotely must have adequate technology to be heard clearly by all. And Fred Bowers said the policy leaves “wiggle room” on the reasons a member could attend remotely. “I truly believe you folks would adhere to (the policy’s intent) and I respect you for that,” he said. His concern was with future boards if it was a forever policy. Kristan said she could add a monthly review, like the one planned for mask-wearing.
Nor did the board end up deciding how to proceed on Tom Aldrich and Katie Papagiannis’s petition for a secret ballot vote to change selectmen’s terms from two years to three and equalize their pay and duties. Ralph Hilton said towns with that setup have town managers. He also said calling a special town meeting on it would be ludicrous. Waiting for the annual town meeting in March would save money and get the best turnout, some residents argued. Some also said the changes might discourage people from running, not encourage them, as the petitioners have said.
The proposed changes would forever change how Alna governs, Bowers said. Baston said setting a vote only on that petition’s question, and not his subsequent petitions for the town to consider a committee to look at the town government, would show bias. Kristan said Baston’s petition question could still be added to the warrant; but that petition still awaited verification, she said.
Some speakers also opposed the proposed date, Nov. 6, as it is a Saturday during hunting season. Kristan noted the Nov. 2 state election is also in hunting season. She suggested Sunday, Nov. 7 instead of 6, to avoid a hunting day.
Papagiannis spoke against a Sunday. And she said, given turnout for the discussion, the Nov. 6 meeting may be well-attended. “So this is the next best thing” to the Nov. 2 ballot, she said.
Culbertson did not second Kristan’s motion for a 10 a.m. Nov. 6 special town meeting. “There have been a lot of really valid arguments for not moving quickly on this,” including whether or not three-year terms would be better, he said. “I do not feel comfortable moving forward with this, until we have more discourse.” Reached Oct. 8, Papagiannis said, “I’m disappointed that (the town vote) wasn’t scheduled.”
The board said it would meet next on Wednesday, Oct. 13.
