Dear Editor:

An ethics complaint has been filed in Alna against 1st Selectman Ed Pentaleri.  The substance of the charge is that Pentaleri is “biased” against a private boat ramp built into the Sheepscot River in 2020, and he should recuse himself from decisions on the matter.

The complaint alleges that the town’s ongoing effort to have the controversial boat ramp removed, and the riverbank restored,  is only a personal vendetta by Pentaleri, based on  his known opposition to the ramp prior to his election to Alna’s Selectboard.

But the private boat ramp’s permit was denied in 2021 by Alna’s Board of Appeals, prior to Pentaleri’s election.  Then, still prior to Pentaleri’s election, Alna’s Selectboard voted to enforce the Board of Appeals’ decision by filing an action in court. Pentaleri is only quite properly working with the other Selectboard members to implement our Board of Appeals’ decision and to enforce Alna’s shoreland zoning ordinance.

I, and over 200 other Alna residents, voted Pentaleri onto the Selectboard in 2021 in part because we agree with his position and want to see the town’s zoning ordinance enforced -- which is exactly how democratic elections should work.  And Alna residents re-elected Pentaleri in 2022 with 82% of the vote.

Alna residents want their ordinances properly enforced. Pentaleri is simply carrying out voters’ wishes, as he should.  The ethics complaint against Selectman Pentaleri is a sour grapes, after-the-fact attack on the Board of Appeals’ 2021 decision, and against the voters who put Pentaleri in office twice.

Jon Luoma

Alna