Dalton Board Fires Executive Assistant for Sharing Anonymous Letter
Some 40 people attended the hearing that Alyssa Maschino had asked to be open.
The board placed Maschino on administrative leave until Feb. 19, and authorized Chair Robert Bishop to work with the town counsel and the town manager to coordinate termination.
The decision proved controversial, with many of her peers expressing frustration with the decision they described as a double standard. About 40 people attended the meeting.
The board claimed that by sending an anonymous letter addressed to "Dalton Select Board" and to iBerkshires, which was cc'd on the letter, Maschino had betrayed their trust.
The vote was 3-0, with new board member Robert Collins abstaining. Member Marc Strout was absent.
"It's very, very troubling to me. That's my issue is that it's a breach of trust, and it foments the division. It continues a division that apparently people are saying is there, but it doesn't do anything to help bring people together. It continues to further divide," said Select Board Vice Chair Dan Esko.
"So I see that it's grossly inappropriate myself. Frankly, some discretion at the executive level is what is needed from the administrative assistant, executive assistant. Discretion."
Bishop said it goes back to the person who wrote the letter.
"I'm sorry Alyssa that it came to this, because it just like I said, this isn't easy for us to do. It's hard. It's a breach of trust for us. So I'm sorry," he said.
The board declined to tell Maschino who had filed the complaint against her.
"You just went through my emails for just no reason? I don't, I don't understand where this came from," she said. "This was weeks ago, and no one complained that I shared the letter."
The meeting had been called in executive session but Maschino exercised her right to an open meeting.
Collins, who abstained because he was not on the board at the time, asked why it was being discussed now, after three weeks.
Bishop said the letter had made the rounds and had just got back to the board. "About the leak," Esko said.
The letter-writer had asked it be read out loud at the Jan. 27 Select Board meeting that was to discuss the erroneous date on the instruction sheet for 28 mail-in ballots for the Feb. 3 special election.
The letter contained complaints about the controversial Facebook post that Strout had made regarding the error, about other town officials, and their "disrespect" to town employees and lack of professionalism. At the Jan. 27 meeting, attendees supported Town Clerk Heather Hunt. The board did not read the letter.
iBerkshires did not cover the letter's contents because of its overly broad complaints and lack of signature. The online newspaper does not publish anonymous letters.
The town's attorney said the fact the letter was submitted anonymously is "kind of irrelevant."
"What is material, in my mind is that the letter contained allegations against a town employee and town official. Those allegations are unproven, unknown if they're true or not, and [Maschino's] job as the executive assistant is to receive the letter and provide it to the Select Board, and the Select Board then gets to decide whether and how to investigate the allegations, and once it's conducted the investigations, whether to take any action," he said.
"[Maschino] sidestepped that entire process and leaked, provided the document to the newspaper, to iBerkshires and the reason why iBerkshires didn't print the letter, one, because it was anonymous, and secondly, because had no way to verify the claims in the letter."
On Jan. 23, Maschino emailed the letter to iBerkshires explaining that "This letter was dropped off last night or this morning. I have just sent it to [Select Board chair Robert Bishop.] I'm not sure if they already sent it to iBerkshires or was asking me to, so just to be sure, here it is."
The letter's author stated that they chose to be anonymous over fears of retaliation.
Esko said the three-page letter contained a lot of inaccuracies and accusations that could not be verified, which was why the board decided not to read it during the meeting.
Maschino does not know what she's going to do next, but said pursuing legal action is not out of the question.
Her colleague in the town manager's office, Kira Smith, said she was submitting her resignation following the board's decision, adding that they did not have training on these types of issues or clarification on what is a "confidential document."
Documents and communications submitted to governmental bodies are generally considered public records. A quick internet search turned up stories of boards dealing with anonymous letters as part of their agendas.
Maschino's supporters called her termination an example of a double standard.
Strout had caused "division and made such awful accusations about [town clerk's] office, that was allowed, but this isn't allowed, a letter that's anonymous. What's the difference between a letter and social media? There is no difference," Assistant Town Collector Tami Flatley said.
She said after the meeting that she is "extremely upset over this unfair termination" and was inviting other news stations to come to Town Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the hopes more people speak out because "Alyssa did no more wrong that others who have done the same thing have done."
She also asked what is preventing the board from retaliating against she and others for speaking to the press about their frustration regarding this decision.
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