‘Clearly the room was stacked: Candia vs. Repplier/Pacheco, Dawes, Donahue, LaMonica, and Twiss, and then Hoover.’
GEORGETOWN – After reading the nearby articles regarding the recent Georgetown SelectBoard’s interactions with the Conservation Commission, I felt it warranted to provide the casual reader with a bit of additional context. Some behind-the-scenes notes.
First, we have never witnessed a chair of the board of selectmen reaching down into an appointed board and asking the chair of that board to consider giving up his or her position during a re-appointment cycle.
Chris Candia has served as the chair of the ConCom for less than a year, (voted in by her fellow ConCom members at their meeting of July 18, 2024 following the sudden resignation of the prior chair, Rebecca Chane).
As Ms. Candia sat before the selectboard last week for re-appointment to the voluntary position of ConCom member, we witnessed Selectwoman Laura Repplier abruptly leave the room stating she would not be participating in the voting.
When questioned a few minutes later as she sat downstairs at the town administrator’s desk, watching the live meeting taking place upstairs through live-Zoom on a large monitor, she twice politely declined to share any comment/reason for her unusual, pre-planned departure and non-participation. (Later, in a comment to the board, the town administrator tipped that Repplier had watched the meeting from downstairs. Something presumably no one in the room with the exception of The Town Common was aware of, or admitted pre-knowledge of – as there had been no visible interaction between Repplier and the town admin. at the meeting, yet his live feed was on, and his office accessible to her.)
When questioned after the meeting, the selectboard chair stated he had no pre-knowledge of the Repplier/town admin. actions. This marks two meetings now for the new selectboard chairman, and each time a member has blindsided him (see prior editions of The Town Common).
As Repplier sat downstairs watching the selectboard’s meeting in a room that is typically locked/secured during meetings, upstairs Ms. Candia was peppered by Selectman Doug Dawes then Michael Donahue who each criticized the ConCom extensively, Dawes repeatedly going back six years in time.
Meanwhile, immediate past-chair of the board of selectmen, Daryle LaMonica sat ‘on-deck’ – about three feet to the right of Ms. Candia, awaiting his turn to be appointed to the ConCom (which in itself was interesting, as for three years on the board of selectmen he exhibited little interest in saving trees, wetlands, and wetland creatures.)
In this context, Selectman Hoover began his repeated questioning, asking Ms. Candia to consider stepping down in the near future from her less than one-year-long chair role. An informal poll of some attendees post-meeting confirmed they all interpreted Hooover’s and the town administrator’s actions as either an intentional heavy-handed or unintentional way for the selectboard to impose solid pro-developer control the ConCom. ♦
