The Selectboard met the Monday night in a specially called meeting to address the lack of communication from the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council and the Town of Northfield. The action of the Training council to decertify Chief Shaw did not involve any communication with the Town of Northfield before, during or after their process. This action departs from the attorney generals letter directing the Town and Council work together. A letter addressing these concerns was penned and sent under the signature of a unanimous selectboard. Members from the community offered their support for the letter.

Town meeting was nearly four hours long with civil and in depth conversation on a myriad of topics. Larry Drown started the meeting off by challenging the election of moderator Jeffrey ending with a lengthy paper ballot process. The result being that Mr. Jeffrey was reelected as moderator. The school board started the meeting with the selectboard following. A snap shot of the results of town meeting follows:

Congratulations to the following elections: Ken Goslant to the selectboard, Vanessa K. Smith to the schoolboard, Carol Seaver Holt, Mark Coombs and Holly EQ Lane to trustees of the library.

Reelection congratulations are in order for Greg Sanders, Kim Pombar, Nate Freeman and Laurie Baroffio.

Art Supplee and Chris Bradley were elected to lister and grand juror(respectively) by a write in campaign. You may have seen these two standing out in the cold with "sandwich boards" promoting their candidacy.

The school budget was defeated by 8 votes, the request to authorize borrowing and to transfer surpluses to offset deficeits were approved. Authorization for the school to purchase a plow truck was denied.

The term for Town treasurer was extended from one to three years. Special interest spending was approved by the voters with the exception of the Greater Northfield Coalition Council (GNCC). Disabled Veteran's property tax exemption in Northfield was increased from $20-$40,000. Australian Ballot is how these items were decided.

From the floor discussion at Town meeting comes the following:

Once the moderator was chosen, the report of the Town Officials was approved after a mistake was identified in the previous years warnings. The minutes in the Town Clerks vault were correct, but transcibed in error. This mistake was discovered by a citizen who clearly pays attention to the governance to her Town. The process relating to the Veteran's Place next to the school was addressed by citizen Mike Popowiski and Nate Freeman both sharing their concerns regarding a transitional facility being located on Vine St next to the school.

Shifting money in the recreation fund to pay for picnic tables went through without discussion.

Responding to a petition rescinding the decision to tax village residents for Town highways was a lengthy discussion. It was clear the facts of the action had become distorted. Claims of back door merger, tax increases and conspiracy to be less than transparent were made. The resulting ballot vote reaffirmed the town's ability to tax equitably and uphold the decision by your selectboard to comply with state law. The most vocal opponent of this decision has been included in this email mailing and I invite any to be included in the "From the Con" email by contacting me.

The general and highway budgets were approved after a wonderful presentation(reduce spending) by Linda Barrows.

The next discussion of whether public questions should be conducted by Australian ballot came after a vote from the floor to increase the requirements of paper ballots during this town meeting. Although the article was defeated, the discussion was involved and promises to return. There are three categories of Australian Ballot. Election of officials (Northfield does this), Budget items (the school does this the Town and Village conduct meetings) and other public questions. A public question would be purchasing property or throwing up ownership of a road or items not budgetary or election of officials. A town meeting or a special town meeting, without Australian ballots, comes with a price tag of approximately $600. The cost of conducting the same meeting with Australian ballots comes with price tag for printing paper ballots and paying the Justice(s) of the Peace for a 14 hour day(to run the election) of approximately $3,000.

The next discussion was whether to increase the percentage of voters needed to cause a revote. There were two obvious sides to the story, both well made, the outcome was the percentage of voters needed to cause a revote increased from 5% of registered voters to 10% or roughly from ~165 to 330 (The Town clerk is able to provide an exact number)

Collection of property taxes in four equal increments remains. A request to eliminate penalties related to taxes was made in the form of an amendment to this article. This amendment was ruled out of order by the moderator. In order for the amendment be allowed, the warning would have to have language identifying the value of the penalty or interest.