Burlington Free Press

February 5, 2001

Danby selectboard faces its constituents, town's future


By Matt Sutkoski
Free Press Staff Writer

DANBY -- Thursday evening, for probably the first time in years, members of the Danby Selectboard turned around and faced their constituents.

That was quite a break from tradition in Danby. During their regular monthly meetings, the three-member panel usually sat at a small table, their backs to the rest of the room, and conducted their business.

At the rickety table, they shuffled papers and signed documents in the hushed, intimate tones of a close family going over a difficult household budget.

The Danby Selectboard's style was certainly atypical. In Vermont, most local government boards sit at the front of a room, facing the audience, making motions, opening discussions to the public, and otherwise engaging citizens.

For years, few minded Danby's seating arrangement much, since hardly anyone went to the meetings anyway.

That began to change several months ago, after a company announced plans to open a large quarry in Danby. Suddenly, unaccustomed large crowds were turning out for Selectboard meetings.

The board hasn't taken a position on whether it supports the quarry. But residents who repeatedly showed up at meetings seeking information or to express opposition to the quarry began to notice something else.

They thought the Selectboard was insular and uncooperative. The quarry dispute still lingers in the background, but concerns about the Selectboard's style began to dominate.

"I don't think they were hiding anything," said resident Donna Herrick, who urged the board for months to change its meeting style. "They were just used to doing things a certain way."

Escalating complaints from the public culminated in a Jan. 3 letter from Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz.

"A board should not have as a general practice conducting its business with its back to the public. This violates the spirit, if not the letter of the open meeting law," she wrote.

So on Thursday, Danby's town government shifted -- a 180-degree turn of the Selectboard members' chairs.

Changes

The changes in Danby started with a company called OMYA, which wants to build the 33-acre calcium carbonate quarry and stone-crushing operation.

The quarry promised jobs, commerce, noise, truck traffic, and changes to property values. A formal proposal for the quarry hasn't been submitted, but the idea of the operation has generated a huge townwide dispute over its relative merits.

Any Vermont town is prone to such a fight. Some Williston residents still smart over the battles surrounding Wal-Mart's arrival. The store has been open since 1997.

Arguments erupt in towns over and over again along the path of the Circumferential Highway in Chittenden County, which some people think will create sprawl and others think will end traffic congestion.

Bitterness remains in Milton over environmentalists' opposition to a sewer line extension.

In most local fights, selectboards become the target for residents who want to vent. And sometimes, those board members don't want to respond.

"When there's controversy, when you feel under attack, there's a natural tendency to hunker down, to hide," Markowitz said.

Boards should defy those instincts, Markowitz and others said.

Carter Smith, a former Williston Selectboard member and veteran of the Wal-Mart wars, said it took a communicative town manager to help tamp down the fight over the giant retailer.

The manager, Bert Moffatt, shuttled between warring camps, sharing information, Smith said. "Both sides felt heard, even if they didn't get their way," he said.

Danby's experience

In Danby, many residents disliked the Selectboard's hunkered-down style. John Iurato, for one, said he couldn't hear what board members were doing, couldn't follow the issues, couldn't be sure they were following the will of the people.

"It was so informal that we didn't know what was going on," Iurato said.

Ironically, many of those who want the town government's style to change don't want the town itself to change much.

Danby is a sharp contrast to nearby Manchester, a shopping and tourist playground a few miles to the south.

Danby is old clapboard buildings huddled close to a narrow main road. It has a requisite general store and country inn. Fashion sensibilities trend toward jeans, flannel and John Deere caps.

That's just fine with most residents, who like the quiet life. Which is why the town erupted when word came last summer of OMYA's plans for the quarry.

Wayne Keefe, a candidate for the Selectboard, said the quarry dispute raised to the surface issues common in many Vermont towns -- the tension between newcomers and longtime residents.

Against that background, Keefe picked up on the theme of communication. He said he was opposed to OMYA's initial proposal, but can be persuaded by argument.

"I'm willing to listen to everyone and see a better proposal from OMYA," he said.

Selectboard members have said little about their meeting style, other than that they didn't want their meetings to spiral out of control.

As for turning around to face the audience, Selectboard Chairwoman Margo Stone said it was fine with her.

"It was a request. It doesn't bother us," she said.

How it went

The Selectboard's experiment Thursday with audience interaction was sometimes tense, but afterward, everyone there seemed to agree it worked.

Three dozen residents -- a good crowd for a town the size of Danby -- leaned against walls or sat on creaky wooden folding chairs.

The Selectboard moved to a room a little larger than the one where it usually meets. The room is cluttered with computers, tables, stacks of records and papers. It barely accommodated the crowd.

Florescent lights buzzed overhead. The Selectboard set up a table in front of a battered blackboard. Someone had attached a yellow smiley sticker to the blackboard.

Board members, now facing the audience, stuck to relatively small issues. They opened bids on a new town loader. They approved the town meeting warning. They largely stayed away from the quarry controversy aside from a few questions from the audience.

It didn't always go smoothly. One resident, nearly knocking over a coffee mug with the word "Stress" on it, raised his voice as he complained about pay raises for the town road crew.

Resident Douglas Kowalski said it should have been a townwide vote, not the decision of three Selectboard members, whether to buy the loader.

Nothing was resolved Thursday night, and the quarry issue will loom for months if not years, but residents agreed the atmosphere was better, even if it was stilted.

The most mundane issues all had the same incantation. "Is there a motion to approve this? Is there a second? Is there discussion from the audience?"

To many residents, the Selectboard's judicial air, done while facing the audience, sounded like music.

"I would just like to thank you for turning around. It's been an informative and inviting meeting," resident Dineen Squillante said, shortly before the meeting broke up for the night.

Selectboard member Donald Keeler also came away pleased with how the night went.

"Any change is hard," he said, "but it went OK."