BY STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—At a special meeting on Friday night, the Brandon selectboard appointed Seth Hopkins, currently chair of the board, to replace David Atherton as Brandon’s Emergency Management Director (EMD).
Mr. Atherton resigned as Brandon town manager in a written letter to the selectboard on January 23 and then as EMD in an email to the selectboard on January 27. In addition to his principal role as town manager, Mr. Atherton was also EMD, public works director, deputy health officer, and regional transportation commissioner.
“The board has operated under a policy of announcing appointed-position vacancies at the next regular board meeting and filling it through a process of outreach to the community and consideration by the board,” Mr. Hopkins wrote in an email to The Reporter on Tuesday.
According to Mr. Hopkins, the special meeting on Friday was called because the extreme cold expected last weekend prompted the board to seek an immediate appointment to the position rather than wait until the next regular board meeting. The Brandon selectboard meets on the second and fourth Mondays of every month–the last regular meeting in January was on the 23rd and the first regular meeting in February will fall on the 13th.
At the special meeting on Friday, this sequence of events was not presented and caused some in attendance to question the timing of the meeting. These questions then caused some sharp exchanges between town residents on Front Porch Forum over the following days.
Mr. Atherton reached out to The Reporter to make clear that he had resigned as EMD a week prior to the special meeting, sharing the January 27 e-mail he’d sent the board. Mr. Hopkins responded to our request for comment with the clarification of the board’s usual process, noted above, and their perceived need for a special meeting in these circumstances.
Mr. Hopkins was chosen as the new EMD because he had already completed the courses required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as part of his preparedness training as a reservist in the U.S. Coast Guard.
Selectboard member Tim Guiles, who has also completed the required training, was appointed alternate EMD, a backup position in the event that the EMD is not available during an emergency.
Also at the meeting, a motion was passed to designate Bill Moore as “Assistant Town Manager” until Mr. Atherton’s departure, at which point Mr. Moore will become “Interim Town Manager” until a permanent town manager is hired.
At an earlier special selectboard meeting, on Monday, January 30, Mr. Moore had been appointed Interim Town Manager in executive session. In order to clarify to the public that David Atherton will remain town manager until his departure, and to ensure that proper open-meeting voting procedures were followed, a vote was taken in public session on Friday night to reclassify Mr. Moore’s position.
Because of the late warning, frigid temperatures, and coincidence with the Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner, Friday’s selectboard meeting was sparsely attended. The few attendees used the public comment portion of the meeting to question the board about its approach to hiring a new Town Manager. One attendee stated that the board’s advertisement for the position provided insufficient information about the position. Another attendee countered that a broad description was better than a narrow one.
Vice-chair Tracy Wyman stated that three people have expressed interest in the position so far. Two of those three are known: Seth Hopkins and Bill Moore. Board member Tim Guiles added that all three applicants are well qualified.
Mr. Guiles also noted that 9 people had already come forward to volunteer for the citizen advisory panel that will help the board evaluate the candidates who have been chosen for interviews. “I wish we had that kind of interest in other committees,” Guiles said.
Applicants for both the citizen advisory panel and Town Manager will continue to be accepted by the selectboard until Monday, February 13.
