GEORGETOWN – The Conservation Commission (ConCom) last week did not have enough members attending the scheduled meeting to make up a required voting quorum. As a result, the meeting was canceled.
As a result, ConCom member Nick Lawler has asked that the commission vote at its next meeting on removing the chair Rachel Therrien.
In an email to the conservation director, Michele Grenier, who is the lone staffer for the ConCom, Lawler wrote: “This is the second time in three months that we have not had a quorum, and it has not been communicated to the full Commission in a timely manner.
“The last time we were notified an hour or two before the meeting. I changed a flight … to make the meeting just to come home and find out it was cancelled. Last night my wife changed her dinner plans so that I could give my full attention to the meeting while she took care of our three children. Last night I found out the meeting was cancelled at 7 pm when I logged into the meeting and just you were in the Zoom room.”
The meeting of the seven-member commission was canceled just before 6 p.m. when member Daryl LaMonica told Therrien he could not attend. Member Ida Wye had already said she could not attend. Two other members, including Lawler, who is also a water board member, were involved with issues on the agenda and could not vote. The water board had several projects under ConCom review, and Aaron Needleman was before the commission on an issue involving his house.
That left only three voting members, not enough for a voting quorum.
“I did not want to waste taxpayers money and the public’s time by holding a meeting that could not accomplish anything,” Therrien said.
Amy Graffum, the ConCom vice chair, said, “This has nothing to do with the chair. We did not have a voting quorum. We couldn’t vote on anything.”
Therrien put Lawler’s issue on the next agenda.
Therrien, who is also an elected member of the SelectBoard, has been attack from fellow SelectBoard member Michael Donahue for several years. He recently submitted a 195-page complaint against Therrien, accusing Therrien of being incompetent and asking the SelectBoard to remove her from the board.
A review of the 195 pages showed it to be a collection of emails and police reports that stemmed mostly from a dispute between the Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco and the former conservation director, who left town employment three years ago. Therrien was involved only as the then-vice chair of the ConCom, who protected the commission’s employee.
Lawler is also asking that the ConCom be reduced in size from seven members to five to avoid the quorum issues. That reduction requires a vote of Town Meeting by town residents. ♦
