The Middlebury Board of Selectmen (BoS) at their Dec. 7 meeting voted to establish an agenda for the Wednesday, Dec. 9, Board of Finance (BoF) meeting and appoint BoF members Vincent Cipriano and William Stowell as acting chairman and acting vice chairman, respectively.
They also added to the standard agenda two items – appointment of a chairman as the first order of business and adoption of the 2016 meeting schedule as a new business item. According to the motion they passed, Cipriano and Stowell will conduct the meeting until the new chairman is appointed. Then the new chairman will take over.
Town counsel Bob Smith explained this was done because the current BoF chair, Michael McCormack, is expected to be sworn in as a selectman Tuesday night, Dec. 8. Since the town charter says he cannot serve on the BoF and also serve as a selectman, Smith said McCormack cannot set the agenda for the Wednesday meeting.
McCormack, who for first selectman against First Selectman Edward B. St. John in the November election, lost that position to St. John. However, he got more votes than the Democratic incumbent selectman, Ralph Barra, and thus is entitled to take Barra’s seat on the BoS.
McCormack has not yet publicly stated he will take the selectman’s position, but it seems clear he will be sworn in as a selectman Tuesday night. Otherwise, the seat would have gone to Barra, and McCormack has not contacted Barra.
