North Yarmouth Select Board appoints Eliza Bachelder to the Economic Development and Sustainability Committee. Bachelder joins the committee as a full member, filling vacancy following resignation of Kevin Robinson.
During its April 4 meeting, the Select Board voted to accept the recommendation from EDSC to appoint Eliza Bachelder as a regular member to the committee.
The EDSC previously recommended Bachelder be appointed to the committee in November as an alternate, but the Board did not take action, as it had not finalized its appointment procedure policy.
The April 4 unanimous vote culminates the first use of the committee and board appointment process policy since its enactment earlier this year.
The policy outlines a multi-step, 6-week timeline, including developing a job description and interview with subcommittee. The policy was drafted to eliminate varying practices of previous Boards, such as questioning some candidates publicly during a regular meeting. The policy standardizes the process for vetting candidates prior to appointment to a board or committee.
The Board did not respond to public comment asking whether all steps of the policy had been followed for Bachelder’s appointment.
EDSC voted on March 23 to designate the full committee as the interview subcommittee. No questions were asked of Bachelder at the meeting. The committee voted 5-0 to recommend Bachelder to the Select Board as a full member.
Chairperson Kit Maloney was assured by Select Board Liaison Kate Perrin the committee had “crossed every t and dotted every i” of the appointment process policy.
Resident Paul Whitmarsh stated he did not oppose appointing Bachelder to EDSC. Whitmarsh did ask whether steps had been skipped in making the appointment.
Whitmarsh said making the whole committee a subcommittee was “fine, but the next step is to develop interview questions and submit those to the Town Manager. Then after that, there's an interview conducted. And then qualifications are shared to the rest of this Board.”
NYFV asked the Board to clarify if any steps were skipped by EDSC and if other residents can expect a similar experience, but had not received a response by time of publishing.
The North Yarmouth Charter authorizes the Select Board to appoint members to vacancies on certain elected boards. Recent amendments to the Charter resulted in removal of members from the Budget Committee and the Cemetery Commission. The Select Board did not respond to questions whether the town had received applications to fill these vacancies prior to its decision on February 21 to defer filling the openings to the June ballot or if it would be adding guidelines for vacancies on elected boards.
The appointment policy is the first of two procedural policies the Select Board has enacted since January. At its March 21 meeting, the Board voted 4-1 to approve a Code of Conduct, with Selectperson Paul Hodgetts opposing. The COC policy addresses allegations of misconduct of committee members towards other committee or board members and outlines actions the Board can take to address violations, such as formal reprimand, censure, or removal from a committee or board.
A third policy, Land Use Ordinance Amendment Policy, was introduced on March 21. Originally drafted by Chairperson Brian Sites as an ordinance amendment, the Board tabled further discussion of the policy at the April 4 meeting. If approved, the policy would limit the Planning Board to non-policy amendments to the Land Use Ordinance. All other amendment requests would need to be submitted to the Select Board, who will consider whether to forward to the Planning Board for consideration.