A teenage lifeguard at Plymouth Beach has accused Select Board member Bill Keohan of refusing his order to wear a life jacket while paddleboarding near the shore.
What began as an allegedly angry confrontation over a safety violation has become an amusing whisper campaign at Town Hall.
The only one apparently not amused was Keohan, who said the incident never took place. He called the made-up story a political ploy designed to embarrass him.
“It’s a case of mistaken identity,” said Keohan, who told the Independent on Wednesday he hopes to disprove the allegations.
“It’s important to me,” he said. “No one should be giving people working at the beach — who are looking out for people’s safety — no one should give them difficulty.”
Keohan said he can prove he wasn’t at the beach that day, doesn’t own a paddleboard, and has documentation showing he was at home at the time of the alleged altercation.
But in incident reports filed with the town’s recreation department, the lifeguard identified Keohan as the paddleboarder who appeared to be violating state law, which requires boaters and paddleboarders to wear life jackets.
The name of the lifeguard, who graduated this year from Plymouth South High School, is being withheld because he is a minor. He wrote that he is planning to attend the University of Virginia.
According to his incident reports, the lifeguard spotted a man paddling without the safety device on June 25 and offered him a life jacket. The man refused it.
It was the first of two angry interactions between Keohan and the lifeguard, the reports say.
“He was upset and disagreed with me” the teenager wrote. “As he was packing up he must’ve said to beachgoers ‘no paddleboards allowed’ as numerous beachgoers came up to me and asked for clarification on rules.”
The teenager went on to write the paddleboarder “said he was a Select Board member, asked who my boss was, thought my name was Jack …he was going to change the rule,” and “it was unfair that kids could swim without lifejackets in the zone.”
Keohan is not identified by name in the initial report, but 12 days after the incident, the lifeguard said he met the paddleboarder again – this time at Town Hall.
In an addendum to the report, the teen said he immediately recognized Keohan when he appeared at a board meeting on July 7 to receive an “outstanding citizen award” from the Plymouth for All Committee.
“Positively identified Select Board member as Bill Keohan,” the lifeguard said in the addition to his report. “He had an interaction with me that night. He congratulated me for a scholarship I won that night.”
The teenager said Keohan did not bring up the beach incident, but “remembered my name …”
It was unclear on Wednesday why it took so long for the incident reports to reach town hall — they may have just been working their way through the bureaucracy.
Incident reports are required whenever there is an accident, injury, aggressive behavior, or safety hazard at a recreational or other town facility, according to town officials.
Keohan met with town officials – including the town manager and lawyer – on Tuesday and offered his version of events. Nothing was decided at the meeting, officials said. But Keohan promised to submit a written “rebuttal,” officials said.
Even if they determined he was in the wrong, there would be nothing they could do.
Coincidentally, the Select Board had been scheduled to approve a code of conduct Tuesday night — a policy instructing town employees and officials treat everyone civilly and with respect and setting forth possible consequences for violations — including removal from one’s position or a referral to a neutral investigator.
The discussion and vote were postponed. No similar policy is currently in place.
Keohan has been at the center of controversies among board members, the most recent being a heated confrontation with Select Board member David Golden over last week’s 2-1 vote to euthanize an aggressive pitbull.
Golden publicly called Keohan a “(f—) coward” for voting to delay the difficult decision.
In another controversy, Keohan was rebuffed by the board after calling for it to reconsider a vote benefiting a developer with close ties to two other board members.
On Wednesday, Select Board Chair Deb Iaquinto declined comment on the beach brouhaha, but said the proposed code of conduct could come into play if disputes like this arise in the future.
The new policy, she said, would provide the town with “a fair and consistent process for vetting complaints or inappropriate behavior against elected and appointed officials. It’s clear on expectations, process and consequences.
“I think it will eliminate a lot of the frustration residents feel when situations come up that we can’t address right now,” she said.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.