By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—On Tuesday night, the Brandon Selectboard released its report on the ethics complaint lodged against Tanner Romano and Laura Miner alleging a conflict of interest between their roles as Trustees of Public Funds (TPF) and their relationship to a project to which TPF pledged $20,000.
The report found that “neither Mr. Romano nor Ms. Miner had any direct or indirect financial interest” in the outcome of TPF’s vote to pledge the $20K. However, the report also found that a reasonable person could perceive Mr. Romano to have had an “indirect personal interest” in the outcome of that vote.
The report makes clear that Mr. Romano’s failure to disclose his personal interest in the outcome of the vote and to explain why he didn’t recuse himself from it was a violation of Brandon’s ethics policy.
Mr. Romano resigned as Trustee on May 8, before the Selectboard had received the report. Accordingly, the report does not recommend any action be taken against Mr. Romano, since the only remedies available to the Board are public admonishment and a request to resign. However, the report does suggest ways in which TPF can modify its operating procedures to increase transparency and avoid similar conflicts in the future.
Background
Tanner Romano, Laura Miner, and Courtney Satz were the three publicly elected Trustees of Public Funds from 2023 through May of 2025. The Trustees oversee a fund bequeathed to the Town of Brandon by Brandon resident Shirley Farr upon her death in the 1950s.
State law requires that money left to a municipality in a will be managed by a 3-person elected panel known as Trustees of Public Funds. The Trustees are tasked with managing the trust, overseeing investment strategy, and disbursing funds from the trust in accordance with the terms of the original will.
In 2023, TPF pledged $20,000 to the Otter Valley Activities Association for a feasibility study for a proposed community recreation center.
OVAA is a nonprofit “booster” club that raises money for activities and clubs at Otter Valley. It is common for such booster organizations to seek grants to fund projects that are beyond the scope of the school budget.
OVAA approached TPF seeking funds for a study to determine whether it would be feasible to build a community recreation center to serve the constituent towns of the Otter Valley school district. TPF ultimately pledged a total of $20,000 toward the study, to be disbursed in $10K installments as OVAA incurred expenses.
The project was ultimately given the name “Valley Community Center” (VCC) and Mr. Romano, who has been active in Otter Valley athletics as a coach and parent, became involved. Mr. Romano is also a principal in Naylor & Breen (NB), a large construction company based in Brandon.
On behalf of VCC, Mr. Romano approached the Otter Valley Unified Union (OVUU) school board in the fall of 2024 to ask whether the district would be willing to part with 10 acres of unused, undeveloped land on the Otter Valley campus for the construction of the community center. Mr. Romano’s presentation included architectural renderings and proposed floor plans.
Mr. Romano also stated that the total cost of the project would likely exceed $12 million. He anticipated that VCC would approach each constituent town to approve a bond to cover construction costs and for an annual budget line item to cover maintenance and operating costs. No town would be obligated to contribute any funds to VCC unless its voters agreed.
OVUU declined to grant the land on its own and instead decided to put the issue before district voters. OVUU drafted an article that would have granted VCC the right to use the 10 acres in exchange for $1 if VCC could assemble the funds needed to cover the project within 2 years. If VCC failed to secure the funding, the land would remain with the district.
Initially, OVUU had sought to put the question on the paper ballot at Town Meeting in March 2025 but ultimately believed that state law required that the vote be done on the floor at OVUU’s annual meeting in February 2025 instead.
The Reporter published articles on the original proposal to OVUU, the district’s decision to put the issue to the voters, and the district’s determination that the vote had to be carried out at its annual meeting.
In the weeks before the OVUU meeting, a group of district residents rallied voters to attend the meeting for the express purpose of voting against VCC. Hundreds of people turned out for the meeting, where Mr. Romano spoke on behalf of VCC. The article failed and VCC did not receive the land.
After the failed OVUU vote, all work on behalf of VCC was halted.
A complaint is filed
On March 9, after the OVUU vote, a Brandon resident filed formal complaints against Mr. Romano and Ms. Miner alleging a conflict of interest in violation of Brandon’s ethics policy. The complaint accused Romano and Miner of misusing their offices as Trustees in pledging the $20K to OVAA. The complaint alleged that Romano and Miner stood to benefit personally from the grant because of their involvement with OVAA, VCC, and/or Naylor & Breen. Ms. Miner was included in the complaint because she is related to one of Mr. Romano’s employees at Naylor & Breen.
The complaint did not seek any specific action against Mr. Romano or Ms. Miner. Instead, it sought the return to TPF of any funds disbursed to OVAA.
The complainant’s identity was not revealed to the accused or to the public, though it was known to the Selectboard. And though the existence of a complaint was made public by the Selectboard, the identities of the accused and the specific allegations were not revealed.
Selectboard members Cecil Reniche-Smith and Jeff Haylon were chosen by the Selectboard to undertake an investigation into the allegations.
Remedies
The Trustees of Public Funds are independently elected public officials and, as such, do not report to the Brandon Selectboard. Consequently, the Board has limited authority to influence TPF’s operations and few “disciplinary” mechanisms in the event that TPF violates the Town’s ethics code. The Board’s options are limited to public chastisement, public request for resignations (which need not be heeded), and recommendations for reforms.
Because Mr. Romano had already resigned before the receipt of the report, the Board did not believe it to be “in the public interest” to publicly admonish him or ask for his resignation. However, the report does suggest some reforms in order to prevent similar conflicts in the future:
- TPF should schedule regular meetings at sites that are easily accessed by the public. TPF should also offer Zoom links for those who cannot attend in person.
- TPF should warn its meetings on Front Porch Forum to reach more of the community.
- The Trustees should “take an objective view of their relationships with the organizations appearing before them and consider how those relationships may appear to the public.” The report adds that Trustees are not obligated to “entertain concerns based on pure speculation.”
- TPF should require that grantees provide updates on the use of their grants and make those updates available to the public.
Reaction
Mr. Romano and Ms. Miner did not respond to emailed requests for comment before publication of this article. Reached by email, Ms. Satz stated, “most of the recommendations of the Selectboard can be easily incorporated into the operations of the Trustees going forward, and several of them have already been initiated.”
The Reporter will update this article if other responses are received.
The full report is posted on the Town’s website.
