Lanesborough Chair Requests Committee Member's Removal
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — A resident's seat on town boards and commissions will be deliberated after he verbally attacked a Select Board member at Monday's meeting.
Preston Repenning, a member of the Age Friendly Park Committee and the information committee for the public safety building, aired grievances about Select Board's leadership and town issues during public comment.
Repenning alleged in a statement he read that Chair Deborah Maynard planned a "coup d'etat" to secure the title, and by the end of the statement, the police chief was instructed to escort him out.
Maynard, whom he addressed, asked that the board take up removing him from representing Lanesborough on committees at its next meeting. The town's policy states the Select Board "may remove members who are disruptive or do not focus on serving the public in a positive manner."
"The letter was one thing, but the language and the personal attack in my personal space, I'm going to ask that we put on the agenda, I would respectfully request that Mr. Repenning be removed from any town committee in Lanesborough," she said at the meeting broadcast on Lanesborough Community Access Television.
At the June 23 meeting, Maynard was elected chair 2-1 with former chair Michael Murphy voting in opposition and new member Jason Breault supporting her. Repenning described the unseating of Murphy as an "obviously concerted and premeditated effort" between Maynard and Breault.
"This is obviously a case of coercion," he said.
"On a three-person board, two people are not allowed to plan a coup d'etat, nor are they allowed to speak to one another outside the confines of the board meetings, especially about town business."
Maynard first thanked Repenning for working on the public safety building (which he referred to) then said she "totally" took offense at being called inappropriate. Repenning said he didn't call her inappropriate, walked up and dropped his letter in front of her saying, "Read what I f****** wrote," and went to exit Town Hall. She told him not to let the door hit him on the way out, to which he loudly asked, "What did you say to me?" and Maynard asked Police Chief Robert Derksen to recuse Repenning from the meeting.
Repenning made a show of putting his hands behind his back to be cuffed but then just walked out with the chief.
"I have never spoken to Jason Breault in a meeting that was not a public meeting. Both Jason and myself are very conscious of that fact. We're a three-member board, and I would not be such a small person as to take something away from Mike Murphy, whom I have great respect for," Maynard said.
"He has been on this board for five years, and he does know what he's doing, but I also have been a municipal employee for 22 years. I have run several meetings, several annual town meetings, and I have never in all of my years of working, either in the public or the private sector, been accused of doing anything against the law."
Breault said he works in law enforcement and "would never, ever break the law like that."
"I take offense to what he said about me," he said.
"I'm new to this, and I would never, ever do anything that would jeopardize my career, anything to jeopardize my professionalism in regards to this, being a Select Board member in the town of Lanesborough and being this new as of this year."
Barbara Davis-Hassan, speaking during public comment, said she witnessed the "very professional" handing over of the chairmanship during the June meeting and added that Repenning had also attacked her in saying the leadership change had been "in concert with a certain real estate agent," citing her ethics violation.
She suggested that Repenning be removed from representing the town.
"I find it very offensive that somebody who is working towards trying to get a public safety building built to show themselves as such an unprofessional person that attacks people when the whole thing is about bringing us all together to find a common sense approach to going forward," Davis-Hassan said.
"And never in my 40-plus years in this community have I sat down and listened to somebody so horribly attack people, including myself, without saying me, but I know he's attacking me, and it's clearly a person that I don't believe should even continue to serve in any capacity and I would request that the board remove this person from representing this town in any capacity, because that is not what this town needs right now. This town needs to come together."
Over the last couple of years, the town's public safety needs have been at the forefront and often a flashpoint that's divided the community.
Earlier this year, the Select Board voted to advance a combined police/emergency medical services facility, discarding the option for a $6.5 million separate build. The same design, then priced at $5.9 million, was shot down in 2023.
"I think as adults, we are never going to agree on an issue," Maynard said.
"There will be some of us for an issue, some of us against an issue. I respect people's opinions that are different from mine. I can't say that they're wrong and I'm completely right, but I don't disrespect anyone, to my knowledge, that I have ever disrespected anyone like this in a public meeting."
Murphy advised that they shouldn't be going into great detail on a public comment.
"To have interaction going back and forth in this audience and from this table is wrong. I'm just asking you to save it for the next meeting when it's on the agenda, Deb. I'm not disagreeing with what you said at all," he said.
"… but you're going back and forth, and you're really pushing the envelope for the Open Meeting Law. I'm trying to advise you."
Tags: town boards,
