Brookfield tax collector issue divides selectmen

By Ruth M. Lyon

Turley Publications Reporter

BROOKFIELD – As selectmen began their Tuesday night meeting with an 80-minute executive session with Tax Collector Lois Moore, a group of would-be attendees to the posted 6:30 p.m. selectmen’s meeting gathered in the kitchen of town hall, where selectmen were to re-convene.

Conversation among those assembled initially centered around local gossip that later proved to be correct, speculation that Moore would not be reappointed to the position she had held for the past 10 years.

Then, former selectman and local access committee (LAC) chairman Ronald Dackson, entered with a copy of a letter he had sent earlier to the board of selectmen, resigning from the LAC.

“I have been a member approximately the last eight years. I am resigning due to the current selectmen showing their complete disregard for common decency and for disrespecting me and other members of the Brookfield Access Committee.

“They have seen fit to, apparently behind closed doors, vote not to reappoint any of the current members except myself, and that is for one year.”

He explained to those assembled that he felt the selectmen should have informed the committee of their planned action or of anyone interested in becoming a new member of the committee “which is a departure from protocol.”

He noted that the board had last week, in a Wednesday morning meeting, appointed four new members, in terms of 1,2 and 3 years.

In the kitchen-table discussion that followed, fellow ex-member David Holdcraft and Dackson discussed the work they had previously performed as committee members. Holdcraft, he explained, taped the meetings, and Dackson converted the tape to DVD, set up the programming, which ran continuously on LAC, and arranged the public announcements.

At 7:40 p.m. the selectmen assembled, now in the banquet room of the town hall, to re-convene their meeting. No LAC cameraman was in attendance. Former cameraman David Holdcraft, seated in the front row, informed the board that he was filming the meeting for himself.

Following discussions of other agenda items, Chairman Rudy Heller called for a motion “not to reappoint Tax Collector Lois Moore at this time, but to employ her as a holdover appointee until Dec. 31, 2010.

He explained his reasoning, saying he felt her performance had been less than satisfactory, that tax collections were low. “Problems have been discussed; we can look at where we are six months from now. There’s a possibility we may be considering a change in the position; we may decide to combine the job of tax collector and treasurer. The state recommends that small town do this,” he said.

Selectman James Allen said he would not make the motion. “There’s a time for compassion. Why not reappoint her for a year?”

He went on to say that the suggested combining of positions should come before a town meeting. “Just because the state endorses it doesn’t convince me it’s the appropriate way. I think combining those positions places a lot of power in our office. ”

Selectmen Peter O’Connell sided with Heller, saying, “I believe a reappointment would suggest satisfaction. Do you agree that we have had problems with the tax collector in the past?”

To which Allen responded, “Yes. But I don’t think there’s that much difference in six months and a year. We discussed establishing firm benchmarks, not to preclude reappointment at the end of the year. There’s such a thing as compassion.”

Heller called for a motion, which Allen refused to make. O’Connell made the motion not to reappoint, and he and Heller approved, Allen dissenting.

At O’Connell’s request, he was named a member of the town hall barrier removal committee. That committee’s membership was reduced to seven members, as opposed to 10.

Membership in the LAC committee was also reduced, to five.

In response to a question, Heller later listed the five members of the LAC committee as Linda Baron, Gerald Johnson, Sharon Mahoney, and his wife, Sarah Heller, and Ronald Dackson, who was reappointed for one year last week, and whose resignation was received Tuesday.