By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Brandon Selectboard convened for its regular meeting on Monday evening.
Town Manager report
After Town Manager Seth Hopkins delivered his written report, which is reprinted in full in this issue, he added that the town’s attorney had drafted a letter warning Brandon residents who had serious tax delinquencies that their homes would be subject to forced sale if arrangements were not made to pay the arrears.
Board member Brian Coolidge asked who the town’s attorney was, and Mr. Hopkins identified Jim Carroll of Carroll, Boe, & Kite in Middlebury.
In response to concerns from several attendees about the expense of the attorney, Mr. Hopkins clarified that Mr. Carroll is not the town’s staff attorney and is not on retainer. Instead, he is an independent attorney that the town uses when it cannot get the help it needs from the attorneys available through the town’s membership in the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.
According to Mr. Hopkins, the town has used Mr. Carroll to cure defective deeds and handle closings on real estate, such as the parcel recently purchased on Seminary Hill.
Board Vice-Chair Cecil Reniche-Smith, herself a retired attorney, added that the Selectboard or other town officials could use the town’s attorney at the town’s expense only if the matter related to town business.
Board Chair Doug Bailey noted that the town’s revenues were outpacing predictions (at 107% of projections) and expenses were in line with expectations (at 81% with the year 75% complete).
Community Development report
Deputy Town Manager Bill Moore delivered his Community Development report, which is reprinted in full in this issue.
Mr. Moore introduced Robin Douglas, the new part-time Assistant to the Rec. Director, to the community.
“She’s already crushing it,” said Moore.
Ethics complaint
The Board continued its discussion of an ethics complaint submitted by a Brandon resident against two elected officials. The Board has not made public the name of the complainant, the names of the officials, or the specific allegation contained in the complaint. The Board has said, though, that the complaint was not lodged against any of the Board’s own members.
However, numerous attendees at the meeting questioned the Board about the operations of the Trustees of Public Funds (TPF), which is composed of three independently elected officials (currently Tanner Romano, Courtney Satz, and Laura Miner) and which disburses grants from a fund established by Brandon resident Shirley Farr after her death in the 1950s.
One of Brandon’s wealthiest residents at the time (her home is now the Lilac Inn on Park Street), Ms. Farr left 2/20 (or 10%) of her estate for sewage, sanitation, spraying of trees, or “the general improvement of the village in ways not sufficiently provided for by taxation.”
Brandon was mandated by state law to create a 3-person board of trustees (now TPF) to manage the bequest, which was originally around $200K and has grown through investment to over $800K. According to TPF member Courtney Satz, the trustees no longer focus primarily on sanitation and sewage but rather seek to “disburse funds to a broad range of community improvements.”
Recent TPF grants have gone to the Brandon Free Public Library, the Brandon Museum, the Forestdale Cemetery Association, the Brandon Toy Project, the OV Football Club, and The Reporter, for example.
The attendees’ questions concerned a particular pledge of $20,000 to the Otter Valley Activities Association in March of 2023. The grant was submitted by Mike Howe and Jodie Keith and would be used for a study to determine the feasibility of a new community center that later came to be known as the Valley Community Center (VCC).
VCC was the subject of some controversy earlier this year when it sought permission from the Otter Valley Unified Union school board (OVUU) to site its proposed building on land owned by the school district. The total cost of the project was estimated to be more than $12 million, much of which would be obtained from taxpayers in the towns that agreed to contribute to and maintain the facility.
A public vote was held at OVUU’s annual meeting in February to determine whether to convey the land to VCC. Though attendance at these meetings is usually slight, an online campaign to defeat the proposal drew hundreds to the meeting and the proposal was shot down.
However, accusations of impropriety had already begun to surface online and even at the meeting, where attendees accused members of VCC of trying to mislead the community for personal gain. The member of VCC that was present at the OVUU meeting was Tanner Romano, who is also one of the Trustees of Public Funds. In addition to his work with TPF and VCC, Mr. Romano is a principal in Naylor & Breen, a large and successful construction company based in Brandon.
Though the Selectboard has not revealed any details of the ethics complaint, it became apparent at Monday’s meeting that some Brandon residents viewed Mr. Romano’s involvement with both VCC and TPF as a conflict of interest and a violation of the state’s new ethics code.
The concern among attendees seemed to be that TPF had pledged $20,000 to OVAA to determine the feasibility of what later turned out to be a $12-million project from which Naylor & Breen could potentially profit if it won the bid to construct VCC.
Reached for comment on Tuesday morning, TPF members Courtney Satz and Laura Miner stated that they did not see the OVAA request as involving Mr. Romano at that point and that they had given grants to OVAA for other projects in the past. They did not recall Mr. Romano specifically alerting them to his involvement with the OVAA project that eventually became VCC.
They also stated that they had already provided information about the OVAA grant to several parties who had inquired about it, including Brandon Town Clerk Sue Gage, who had herself received inquiries about the circumstances of the grant.
In a separate conversation also on Tuesday morning, Mr. Romano acknowledged that he was already involved with OVAA when it submitted its funding request to TPF and that the responsibility lay with him if Ms. Satz and Ms. Miner had been unaware. But he also stated that it was simply a feasibility study at that point and that if the project had progressed to execution, he would have recused himself from any request to TPF for additional funds.
Mr. Romano referred to a request from the Brandon Library for funds to begin its recent renovation, noting that he’d recused himself from that decision because he knew that Naylor & Breen would likely be one of the bidders on the project. Naylor & Breen did end up winning that bid.
According to Ms. Satz and Ms. Miner, only $10,000 of the $20,000 pledge has been disbursed to OVAA because the project stalled after the failed OVUU vote. Mr. Romano stated that none of that $10K was paid to Naylor & Breen.
Despite very direct questions about and even specific accusations toward TPF, the Selectboard fielded attendees’ questions about TPF’s operations without acknowledging or denying that the subject of the ethics complaint was TPF or Mr. Romano.
The Board also noted that, aside from themselves, elected town officials are not under the Board’s control and that it was unclear to them what remedy they would have if they were to find that a non-Selectboard elected official had violated the ethics law. They asked the public for patience while it tried to navigate this new procedure.
In executive session after the public meeting, the Board appointed Ms. Reniche-Smith and Board member Jeff Haylon to investigate the complaint.
Appointment to Energy Committee
The Board unanimously appointed Serge Cotnoir to fill the vacancy on the Brandon Energy Committee left by Jeff Haylon when he stepped down to take his seat on the Selectboard.
Mr. Cotnoir has volunteered with the Energy Committee and also serves on the Board of the Brandon Senior Center.
America’s 250th anniversary committee
The Board unanimously appointed Dr. Kevin Thornton, Ellen Knapp, and Sophie Moore as the first three members of a committee tasked with organizing events for America’s 250th birthday in 2026. Dr. Thornton is a historian, formerly of UVM, who has done extensive research on local history. Ms. Knapp has taught kindergarten at Neshobe for many years and is a long-time organizer of the “flower girls” ceremony on Memorial Day. Ms. Moore is a senior at Otter Valley and planning to study history in college, with the goal of becoming a teacher.
Dr. Thornton told the Board that Brandon’s history offers unique opportunities for the 250th birthday celebrations, given the town’s long involvement with the anti-slavery movement and its importance in the development of clean energy. Thomas Davenport received the first U.S. patent for an electric motor that he invented in Forest Dale in the 1830s.
Halfoween
The Board chose to table a request from Colleen Wright Events for a permit to close Park Street for a “Witches’ Walk” on Friday, May 2 from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The event would be in celebration of “Halfoween,” a holiday meant to mark the halfway point between consecutive Halloweens and give Brandon residents an excuse to have fun.
The proposal was met with some resistance because Park Street is closed several times a year already and the closures cause problems for traffic and for the police and fire departments.
An attendee suggested that the event could use the sidewalks on Park Street instead of the roadway itself. The Board was receptive to the idea and agreed to hold off on a decision pending further conversation with the sponsoring parties. The Brandon Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Brandon Alliance are also offering some support for the event.
New contract with Police Union
The Board unanimously approved a Memorandum of Agreement amending the town’s contract with the New England Police Benevolent Association, Inc. (“the Police Union”). The town had sought to change the terms of the contract in order to make the Brandon Police Department (BPD) more attractive to potential staff.
First, the new contract increases the entry-level hourly wage for officers at BPD from $26.91 to $34, making Brandon more competitive with larger and better-funded departments.
Second, BPD will now give credit to new BPD officers for service performed in other departments.
This new contract will be valid through June 30, 2028.
In response to a question from the room, Mr. Hopkins said that officers who recently left BPD would be informed of the new contract and informed they’d be welcomed to return. Mr. Bailey said he’d reached out directly to one of the officers but had gotten no response.
Public Comment
An attendee informed the community of a “Hands Off” event in Central Park on April 5, from 12 to 2. The event is organized by Indivisible Brandon, a “pro-democracy” organization that opposes the actions of President Trump’s administration. Anyone interested in more information can go to indivisible.org.
Warrant
The Board unanimously approved a warrant for $174,281.28 to cover the town’s obligations and expenses.
