GUILFORD-As an illustration of the deep mistrust and divisiveness happening in Guilford right now, a special meeting of the Selectboard had to be held on July 3 because the town office has two vaults, and the holders of the combinations to the vaults no longer seem to trust one another.
One of Guilford's vaults is the town clerk's vault. By statute, every town in Vermont has one, and it holds the town's land records. It is open to the public only when the town clerk is there to let people in.
The second vault, "the treasurer's vault," has, among other things, a petty cash drawer, employee records, and bank records. No member of the public is allowed inside.
"Both of those are secure vaults," said Town Administrator Erika Elder. "Both are fireproof. Previously, the combinations were shared among all members of the town staff - the treasurer and the town clerk. Both had the combinations to each other's vaults."
At some point this past spring, the vault combinations were changed.
"And the combinations did not get shared," Elder said.
"So the town clerk, needing more space, was storing the ballots for the upcoming primary election in the treasurer's vault. She requested access to it on the weekend," she continued.
"And because they weren't sharing their combinations, the treasurer declined to leave the vault open over the weekend, because that didn't seem safe," Elder said.
According to Elder, the Secretary of State's office got involved.
"The Selectboard, by statute, has control over the building," Elder said. "They do not have any control over the town clerk or anything that they do. But they do have control over the building."
And at the special meeting, the board asked the respective town officials to share the passwords with Elder.
"Then I gave the town clerk the combination to the treasurer's vault, and I hold the combination to the town clerk's vault in case staff needs to get in there to do records searches while the town clerk is not here," she said.
No Selectboard member has either combination.
"Nor did they want it," Elder said.
She said she has personally taken a suggestion from the Secretary of State's attorney: A new safe will arrive within a few days.
"Then the clerk can have a safe for the ballots that no one else but her has the combination to," Elder said. "It will hold all election materials."
A sign of distrust
"If people trusted each other, this wouldn't have happened," Elder said. "But apparently there's a lack of trust."
Regardless, she pointed out that municipal employees - all Guilford residents - all agree that "we really want our elections to go smoothly and well, and for people to be able to trust [the process]."
"The Selectboard is now working on a statement about it," Elder said.
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.