BY TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE
Middlebury’s new Board of Selectmen (BoS) met for the second time Jan. 4. The meeting focused on procedural matters and was followed by an executive session to discuss legal matters. Selectmen also agreed to add to the agenda for the Jan. 19 meeting consideration of the budget audit and moving the town to a cashless system for tax collection.
Selectman Michael McCormack (D) asked First Selectman Edward B. St. John (R) and Selectman Elaine Strobel (R) to delay approval of the Dec. 21, 2015, minutes until their Jan. 19 meeting because he had not received them. Recording clerk Barbara Whitaker told McCormack the selectmen have been getting the minutes from the town’s website, but offered to email them to him. He accepted her offer. Strobel asked Whitaker to email the minutes to her, too.
St. John said the minutes had been passed this way for at least the last four years with no objection from Strobel, so the vote would be taken Jan. 4 and not delayed. Strobel motioned to approve the Dec. 21, 2015, minutes, and St. John seconded the motion. The motion passed, with Strobel and St. John voting for it and McCormack abstaining.
In routine matters, the BoS approved five tax rebates ranging from $31.56 to $304.09.
St. John told Strobel and McCormack that, according to town charter, an acting first selectman should have been appointed at the last meeting, but that was overlooked. He asked if both were in favor of Strobel serving as acting first selectman if the need arose and both agreed.
In other discussion, McCormack said he wanted to add two items to the Jan. 19 meeting agenda (a Tuesday meeting due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day falling on Monday, Jan. 18), a discussion of last year’s budget audit and a discussion on moving the town to a cashless system for collecting taxes. St. John agreed and directed Whitaker to invite the chairman of the Board of Finance to attend the meeting and discuss the budget audit.
St. John then asked for a motion to enter executive session to bring Strobel and McCormack up to date on legal matters with town attorney Robert Smith. Strobel made the motion, and it was seconded by McCormack. St. John told the Bee-Intelligencer there would be no vote or additional business afterwards.
The next regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen will be Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, at 6 p.m. in the Town Hall Conference Room.
