At the end of the Feb. 27 Hudson Board of Selectmen meeting, tensions flared between Vice Chair, David Morin, and Selectman, Kara Roy.
Roy, during liaison reports, read a prepared statement, raising concerns about not being informed about a personnel issue that recently occurred.
“Tonight, I’m disappointed. Transparency is paramount to this board’s function,” Roy said.
“Recently there was an incident within the town,” Roy stated and “due to the nature of the incident” it would likely be discussed during a non-public session.
The personnel issue wasn’t what Roy wanted to address.
“It’s the abject failure to keep this board informed,” Roy said.
She argued that Morin, Chair, Marilyn McGrath, and Town Administrator, Steve Malizia, all knew about the incident in question, but didn’t inform the rest of the board.
“I’m not sure which dereliction is more serious. That may well be a question for the Ethics Committee,” she said. “But this was a unilateral decision disregarding their inherent duty of consulting and seeking consensus of the board. Their actions foster mistrust between board members and that leaves three questions. What did you know? When did you know it? And when were you going to notify the board?”
Morin responded by saying he was brought into the situation after Chair, Marilyn McGrath, was notified, but was not able to make it to Town Hall.
He said that once it was turned over to Malizia, he took care of everything “because that was the procedure that he was given to do by the people that we needed to talk to.”
Morin said McGrath was only involved “because the employees went to her because of their concerns, which is totally acceptable.”
Regardless, Roy argued she felt it was a situation that she thinks the entire board should’ve been aware of, and that Morin, McGrath, or Malizia, should’ve notified the rest of them about the situation that took place.
Morin also argued that he thought Selectman, Bob Guessferd was informed of the situation by Malizia, but Guessferd said he heard about it and then inquired about it by asking Malizia. He argued that the entire board should’ve been notified. Guessferd did not say from where he initially heard about the situation.
“I think this is something that probably should’ve been raised to the entire board’s attention,” Guessferd said.
Morin argued that he told Roy about issues regarding the Greeley Street fire from a few years ago and suggested that Roy interfered with the investigation.
“So, I’m not telling Selectman Roy anything until I have to,” Morin said, arguing that she couldn’t be trusted with sensitive information.
Roy argued the problem is that those who knew about the incident in question, didn’t let the rest of the Selectmen know “about a serious issue that happened in this Town Hall.”
Morin said a firefighter fell through the floor and could’ve been killed referring to the Greeley Street fire.
“You did everything in your power to politically protect somebody who was gonna get another job,” Morin said. “That was a serious incident, and you took all the information I gave you to make sure that an investigation wouldn’t go further.”
Roy argued she never interfered with any investigation and challenged Morin to prove his allegations.
“I never interfered with an investigation,” Roy said.
Guessferd and Selectmen, Dillon Dumont, both agreed that there needs to be more communication between the Selectmen going forward.
“For everybody here, I do believe we need to communicate, and let me tell you, the people watching at home don’t need this so let’s move forward,” Dumont said.
Dumont also argued that while Roy found out, he wasn’t notified, arguing it was the same situation she was concerned about.
“You did the same to me, you left me in the dark,” Dumont said.
Roy apologized to Dumont.