Selectboard refuses to address Moore resignation

Letter to the editor:

Some things sit with you. You cannot shake them because they are just not right. Well, this is one of them for me.

The Selectboard, despite statements committing to increased transparency, has been deliberately opaque in deflecting public scrutiny from the recent behavior of two Selectboard chairmen.

Earlier this summer, citizen and volunteer ZBA member Ronda Moore was the victim of a calculated political hit after she publicized her misgivings about the proposed Charlotte Health Center permit application.

Lane Morrison, a former Selectboard chair and the current ZBA chair, publicly accused Ms. Moore of violating the Selectboard’s trust and not being fair and open. He said Ms. Moore had an undisclosed conflict of interest with the Charlotte Health Center and that he wanted her removed from the ZBA.

Matt Krasnow, the current Selectboard chair, piled on in a Charlotte News article saying that it was irrefutable that Ms. Moore had a conflict of interest.

Things heated up and the Town attorney got involved. Suddenly, Matt and Lane got religion and stopped talking about this. Efforts to remove Ms. Moore from the ZBA also stopped. But she eventually resigned her seat in protest over how she was treated and the destruction of her effectiveness on the board.

The Selectboard was asked to be transparent and put a discussion of the episode on their agenda. The Selectboard agreed that the town attorney would be contacted to see what details could be disclosed.

Months have passed but nothing has happened. Matt and Lane have never been held to account by the Selectboard for their demeaning, and apparently false, allegations which forced a volunteer off the ZBA. Not a peep.

Matt would not put a discussion of this episode on the Selectboard agenda. No objection from other Selectboard members.

And the Selectboard is slow-walking an open discussion of the town attorney’s advice.

A citizen got railroaded off the ZBA, and there is dead silence from the Selectboard.

Is it any wonder that no one has applied to fill this vacant ZBA seat?

Stuart Bennett
Charlotte