Select Board Chair Deb Iaquinto admonished her fellow board members Tuesday about their continued bickering from the dais, announcing a ban on them directly addressing each other at their weekly meetings.
“We continue to make headlines that don’t reflect the actual work that we do for the people of Plymouth,” Iaquinto said at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, reading from prepared remarks.
“We disagree passionately. We’re very good at that, and I expect us to continue to do that. We can question each other’s facts and decisions and challenge each other’s ideas and assumptions,” she said. “But we’re going to do it without diminishing the person expressing those opinions and ideas.”
Iaquinto’s intervention came on the heels of last week’s meeting, the latest in a series of episodes in which board members launched personal attacks at each other. Last week, board member Kevin Canty questioned the motives of another member, Bill Keohan, over his apparent misunderstanding of a Keohan to seek the release of property tax information about West Plymouth, the neighborhood most affected by operations of the nearby Plymouth Municipal Airport.
Canty suggested Keohan wasn’t living in reality.
Contacted by telephone on Wednesday, Iaquinto reiterated her frustration with recent behavior by her colleagues.
“After the last incident, I realized that I’m never going to change the behavior of the board members, but what I can do is change the way I run meetings,” Iaquinto said.
From now on, she said, board members will no longer be allowed to address one another but must direct their comments to her.
One person will speak at a time with no interruptions, and members will each have an opportunity to speak on an issue before anyone gets a second round, she said. Iaquinto pledged to cut members off if they start repeating themselves. She said personal attacks, accusations about motives, and disparaging remarks will not be tolerated.
“It’s been very disturbing and frustrating for everyone watching and it just appears that the board has behaved dysfunctionally,” Iaquinto told the Independent.
She said the good work of the board and town employees is overshadowed by the chaos.
Immediately after Iaquinto’s remarks, tensions flared again between Canty and Keohan, once again about a seemingly insignificant matter: the approval of the minutes of the July 28 meeting. At that meeting, the board, with Keohan dissenting, voted to euthanize an aggressive pit bull.
Keohan had objected to how his vote was portrayed in the minutes, which said:
“Selectman Keohan expressed discomfort making the decision without having participated in the full hearing process and asked about alternatives.”
In Plymouth, a hearing officer makes a recommendation to euthanize a dog to the Select Board, which votes on the officer’s recommendation without the ability to interview witnesses.
At a previous meeting, Iaquinto asked Keohan to propose new language for the minutes. He came up with:
“Selectman Keohan felt as if he didn’t have enough information to make a decision to destroy the animal because he had not participated in the hearing.”
Tuesday’s meeting was to consider adopting the new language proposed by Keohan.
Canty objected, saying Keohan’s wording was not as accurate as the original wording.
Iaquinto said she would review the video and make a final decision at a future meeting.
During the July 28 meeting, board member David Golden called Keohan a “f—ing coward” for voting against euthanizing the dog. It was one of several meetings in recent months in which board members attacked one another personally.
Canty and Golden have found themselves on opposite sides from Keohan several times since Keohan raised a perceived conflict of interest involving Canty and Golden. Keohan argued publicly that his two colleagues should have recused themselves from a June 9 vote clearing the way for their friend and campaign manager, developer Matt Sheridan, to buy formerly protected land in Cedarville.
The bickering among board members was a central reason the board adopted a new code of conduct last month.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org