ORANGE — The Selectboard voted on Wednesday to accept three Open Meeting Law complaints filed by residents and to authorize its chair to respond to them.
Alexandre Schwanz read aloud each formal complaint before Selectboard members discussed them and selected him to reach out to the complainants after consulting with Town Counsel Donna MacNicol. Resident Denise Andrews objected to a lack of equal access to the Sept. 5 meeting, while Amanda Finch and Charlene Pelletier filed complaints about the Selectboard abruptly reorganizing its leadership at the Sept. 1 meeting, when the matter was not listed on the agenda.
Vice Chair Reid Jeffries “Jeff” Anderson Jr. thanked the complainants for bringing the issues to the Selectboard’s attention.
“I think that part of me is very happy that there are people out there that are listening to this and holding our feet to the fire,” he said. “People care, and thank you.”
Andrews, a former state representative, attempted to participate in the Sept. 5 meeting, but an audio feedback loop posed a challenge. Andrews made her remarks after giving her phone number to Schwanz, who called her and put her on speakerphone. The meeting was hybrid, but Andrews said the board failed to provide equal access to all residents.
“Several of the remote participants have a disability and cannot physically engage in person (access issues — mobility, sound system and referenced materials),” she wrote, raising the issue of residents “being excluded from equal access to their government.”
Cara Iacoponi, executive assistant to Town Manager Matthew Fortier, said she is working with the local public access cable station, Athol-Orange Community Television, to try to ensure that the technical issue that plagued the Sept. 5 meeting does not occur again. AOTV Executive Director Liz Walber said that whoever is assigned to work at the Sept. 30 Selectboard meeting, which is set for Town Hall’s Ruth B. Smith Auditorium, will bring a speaker to broadcast Zoom audio via another XLR cable that will be run to the downstairs setup.
Schwanz mentioned that he chose Town Hall’s Ruth B. Smith Auditorium — instead of the downstairs meeting room — due to the auditorium’s larger space for people to participate.
Finch’s complaint names Selectboard Clerk David Ames and member Kelli Gervais. Shortly before the Sept. 1 meeting adjourned, the Selectboard’s chairmanship shifted from Julie Davis to Schwanz after Ames made a seemingly abrupt motion that Gervais seconded. Davis and Anderson voted against the motion, which passed in a 3-2 vote.
Board reorganization was not listed on the agenda, and the vote generated controversy in town. However, the Selectboard then reaffirmed its vote — this time unanimously — at the Sept. 5 meeting, after MacNicol advised that the initial decision was inappropriate.
Finch’s complaint states the Selectboard violated Open Meeting Law by failing to list topics with sufficient specificity.
“This critical administrative action was entirely omitted from the official meeting agenda, which was required to be publicly posted at least 48 hours prior to the meeting,” Finch wrote. “Verbal communication between members to initiate this action nullifies an ‘unanticipated topic.'”
Pelletier likewise took issue with the way the Selectboard restructured itself.
“Because a failed attempt to replace the chair was previously, and rightfully, put on the public agenda for the June 3, 2026, meeting, the subsequent successful action on Sept. 1 was entirely foreseeable,” she wrote. “It cannot be categorized as an emergency or an unanticipated topic under the law.
“By taking a vote of this magnitude under the new charter without public notice, the Selectboard purposefully circumvented public transparency,” she continued. “The Selectboard’s subsequent attempt to place a ‘restructure’ notice on the agenda for a later meeting (Sept. 5, 2026) serves as an admission of their prior notice failure but does not retroactively legalize the unlawful vote taken on Sept. 1.”
But before the Selectboard moved on to the next topic at Wednesday’s meeting, Gervais defended the initial vote, saying it qualified for the portion of the meeting designated for “unanticipated business.”
