It played out like a civil confrontation between Select Board Chair Kevin Canty and Town Moderator Steve Triffletti, but in the end the board on Tuesday granted Triffletti permission to act in his role as an attorney by representing clients before town boards.
The 4-1 vote – with Canty the lone dissenter – was a reversal of the board’s 5-0 decision in March 2024 to deny Triffletti that right. At the time, Canty and then-chair Dick Quintal voted against designating the town moderator as a “special municipal employee.” Since then, however, three new members – David Golden, Deb Iaquinto, and Bill Keohan– have been elected to the board.
So Triffletti was back, once again applying for the designation. It matters because state law prohibits municipal employees from acting as an attorney or agent for parties before municipal boards or departments.
But they can ask for an exemption by having their position designated a special municipal employee.
The town moderator position in Plymouth was listed as special municipal employee in 1963, but not in subsequent years, although many Massachusetts communities long have done so.
Tuesday night, Triffletti argued that he was not asking for permission to represent anyone before Town Meeting, over which has presided for 37 years, but rather to appear on behalf of his clients before other boards and committees. He promised not to represent anyone before a board or committee who has a case against that board or committee. But he said he would like to be able to represent clients who have business before a board, such as a restaurant seeking a license.
Canty and Triffletti had a long and pointed – but polite – back-and-forth on the issue.
The chair asked Triffletti how his being designated as a special municipal employee would benefit the town.
“The moderator currently is an attorney and there is certain expertise, skills, and experience that I have as an attorney that [are] beneficial to the town in ways other than presiding at Town Meeting,” he replied.
Canty pressed on.
“How does the town benefit from you appearing before a board or a committee for a liquor license, as the moderator?” he asked. “None of the other applicants [for designation as special municipal employee] were an attorney seeking to represent people in front of municipal boards and committees…You are the moderator and that would have an influence on the outcome of the representation.”
Triffletti countered that if he appeared before a board or committee, it would not be in his position as moderator.
Canty was not persuaded.
“How many of your clients have hired you, would you say, on the basis that you are the moderator in Plymouth?” he asked.
Triffletti said he was not “aware” of that ever happening.
“So, you don’t think it has factored into their analysis?” Canty said.
“No,” Triffletti replied.
Still, Canty, who also is an attorney, was not buying Triffletti’s reasoning.
“As a lawyer, it is very much who you know in addition to what you know in how you get things done for your clients,” he said. “In this community, it is impossible for the moderator or any other elected official, particularly a town-wide elected official, to just decide one day that they’re here as something else at a town board or committee. The moderator is trying to make private profit off of a public position in a way that I think is inappropriate.”
But Canty stood alone in his opposition.
“The voters of Plymouth have elected Mr. Triffletti for over three decades to this position knowing that he’s an attorney in town, and I trust the voters of Plymouth,” Select Board member David Golden said.
Fellow board member Deb Iaquinto agreed.
“Mr. Triffletti has proved his integrity time and time again,” she said. “You can wear your moderator hat at Town Meeting a couple of times a year and then you wear your lawyer hat for the rest of the year.”
Quintal, who voted against Triffletti’s request last year, said he did so then because Triffletti had recently represented then-Planning Board member Birgitta Kuehn when she unsuccessfully tried to prevent that board from removing her as its representative on the Community Preservation Committee. He was not allowed to speak at the hearing that resulted in Kuehn’s ouster. Quintal said he sees no conflict of interest now.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.