GEORGETOWN – SelectBoard member Rachel Bancroft said last week she has avoided commenting on unfounded attacks on her personally and as a public official, “but in response to the continued attacks on me, I feel the need to set the record straight.”
Bancroft called the continued attacks on her by SelectBoard member Mike Donahue and resident Kevin Wood to be “half truths,” woven together to create a false picture.
“While I am a public official, I understand that my life is more on display. But my private life, including the lives of my two children, one of whom is a minor, must be off limits,” she said. “I will extend that courtesy even to my attackers, as much as I disagree with them.”
In a recent social media post, Wood reported details of her on-going divorce proceedings and mentioned her children.
Donahue’s four-column letter in last week’s Town Common criticized Bancroft for “intimidating” anyone whom she perceives to be a threat to “her beloved” Conservation Commission. He accused Bancroft, the chair of the ConCom, of “obstructing” any investigation of ConCom “misgivings.”
“I have never obstructed any investigation,” she said.
Bancroft, who has been on the ConCom for 13 years, said that she is loyal to the town’s bylaws that govern wetlands. “Wouldn’t you expect that someone on the ConCom would be loyal to the town’s bylaw and state wetlands laws? I make every effort to follow the bylaw and precedents. That’s to the town’s benefit.”
Some developers, business owners and residents are unhappy with ConCom decisions that limit encroachments on town wetlands and water supply. “Everybody is not going to be happy 100 percent of the time,” she said.
“The commission has become a battering ram,” she said. “A small group of town residents twist the facts.”
Donahue also accused Bancroft repeatedly of filing police reports as a way to intimidate critics of the ConCom.
She acknowledged that she has brought matters to the police when they were warranted. In one, other ConCom members asked her to talk to the police about Wood, who was making them feel uncomfortable in a meeting. An attorney for the town’s law firm, KP Law, asked Wood to leave the meeting so the commission could go into executive session.
The attorney called Wood’s behavior “bizarre.”
Police open a file on any issue brought to them, she said. None of Bancroft’s issues have been found by the police or any law enforcement agency to be false.
She also talked to the police in support of ConCom staff members, who said they felt intimidated in Town Hall. Both staff members have since resigned, blaming the “toxic” environment in town hall.
Bancroft said the town owes the previous conservation agent an apology for the way some town officials treated him.
“He was on call 24/7,” dealing with ConCom issues at night and on weekends, she said. He would meet with residents as early as 5:30 a.m., but only the ConCom knew that.
Bancroft said the source of many of the accusations against him and other town officials, were brought by a disgruntled employee in 2018. They have been investigated repeatedly by state agencies and town counsel and were found to be baseless.
The SelectBoard hired the Stirm Group, a private detective firm, to investigate the ConCom. The SelectBoard sharply criticized its report, which cost the town $10,000, saying it “finds (the report) inadequate and does not endorse it.”
SelectBoard member Laura Repplier called it a “misuse of funds.” SelectBoard chair Robert Hoover said, “nothing important has come out of this report.”
However, Donahue, who is serving his first term as a SelectBoard member, continued to criticize Bancroft for not cooperating with the Stirm Group’s investigation.
“I cooperated with the Stirm Group. I don’t like their tactics. A lot of people complained about their tactics,” she said. The firm employs former law enforcement officers, but it is a private detective agency, not law enforcement. “They do not have to answer their questions,” she said.
Bancroft thanked the people of Georgetown for the outpouring of “support that the community has shown to me through these ongoing attacks and harassment.” ♦
