{"id":42485,"date":"2023-02-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=42485"},"modified":"2023-02-16T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T11:00:00","slug":"residents-bring-complaints-about-selectman-to-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/02\/16\/residents-bring-complaints-about-selectman-to-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents bring complaints about selectman to board"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland <\/b>
\n Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 Issues arising at the Jan. 30 meeting of the Wachusett Regional School District Committee made their way into the Feb. 6 meeting of the Holden Board of Selectmen, with two residents asking for the resignation of member Tom Curran.<\/p>\n

Curran was among a group who tried to \u201cintimidate\u201d parents, resident Amy Miller told selectmen during the citizen comment section of the meeting.<\/p>\n

Miller initially identified Curran as the subject of her comments but did not name him later after the chairman said she should not use names, only titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this incident, a selectman was among a group individuals\u201d who she said \u201cattempted to harass one of his own constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller said \u201che is not fit for public office,\u201d and asked the Board of Selectmen to \u201cdisavow his actions.\u201d She then also asked that he resign from his public office.<\/p>\n

Her comments were followed by those of resident Aidan Kearney, who said he was at the school committee meeting regarding a matter of public concern, specifically the \u201cdivisive diversity, equity and inclusion aspect of the curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kearney said he was sitting toward the front of the room \u201cwhen four individuals, including a member of the Board of Selectmen, came over to me and in a bullying manner accosted me, made me feel unwelcome, told me that I could not record the meeting,\u201d something Kearney said \u201cI have every right to do,\u201d adding he was recording the meeting for reasons including his protection.<\/p>\n

Under the state Open Meeting Law, meetings can be recorded, but a person must inform the chair of the committee in advance of doing so and must not do so in a manner that is disruptive to the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told I don\u2019t live in this town and to go back to where I came from,\u201d Kearney told the Board of Selectmen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt so unwelcomed,\u201d he said. \u201cWe came here for the schools and were told to go back where we came from,\u201d adding he was born and grew up in Worcester, moving to Holden in 2016. He ran for the School Committee in 2021 but was not elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had four people stand in front of me,\u201d he said. \u201cThat video has now gone viral. \u2026 Our town has become the laughing stock of the country because of that. It is embarrassing, humiliating and degrading.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was \u201cafraid to attend meetings ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would request the member apologize and resign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n Responses<\/b>\n <\/p>\n

Addressing citizen comments later in themeeting,ChairmanAnthonyRenzoni said that the Board of Selectmen \u201cdoes not disavow incidents that happen outside a meeting (of its board).\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cany resignation demand should be between an elected official and their constituent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the recording issue, Renzoni said he had no comment since it was an action outside a convened meeting of the Board of Selectmen.<\/p>\n

Selectman Stephanie Mulroy also spoke, noting her comments were her personal feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a selectmen, I hold to the calling that we are to be completely nonpartisan representatives of all citizens of Holden regardless of our political leaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding that elected officials are \u201cheld to a higher standard of behavior,\u201d Mulroy said that \u201cBeing granted a position of leadership also comes with a degree of authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the incident, she said, \u201cNo citizen should be intimidated or silenced by one of our board, and I am personally appalled by the the lack of judgement the select board member exercised in the School Committee events last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times of disagreement and of division, it is our duty to maintain level-headed leadership that promotes calm and inclusive discourse,\u201d Mulroy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 Issues arising at the Jan. 30 meeting of the Wachusett Regional School District Committee made their way into the Feb. 6 meeting of the Holden Board of Selectmen, with two residents asking for the resignation of member Tom Curran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}