BRATTLEBORO-Three new members will join the Selectboard following an election that, fueled by a surge of new local political activism, became a pointed referendum on crime and punishment, on drugs and recovery, and on high property taxes and humanitarian spending.
According to unofficial results posted by Town Clerk Hilary Francis, Oscar Heller defeated Jill Stahl Tyler, 1,412-961, for the open three-year seat on the board that was vacated by the current chair, Daniel Quipp.
In a crowded field for two one-year seats on the board, incumbents Richard Davis and Franz Reichsman were both voted out of office. Issac Evans-Franz, with 1,261 votes, was the top choice, with Amanda Ellis-Thurber winning the other seat with 995 votes.
Finishing out of the money were former Selectboard member Tim Wessel (903 votes), newcomer Cristina Shayonye (709 votes), and incumbents Davis (476 votes) and Reichsman (452).
Heller, a Representative Town Meeting member who has served for six years on the body's Finance Committee, told The Commons before the election that creating the town budget is the single most important job of the Selectboard and that he believes "we've gotten off track."
He says that he has a plan to get the budget back on track and that his goal is to "guide us through the challenges."
Ellis-Thurber, whose family operates Lilac Ridge Farm in West Brattleboro, said before the election that her goals were "to support our middle class with housing availability and job growth, advocate and coordinate revenue sharing with the state to support community members most deeply in need, and decrease costs while increasing revenue through business growth for career-seeking young people."
Evans-Franz, a Brattleboro native, pledged before the election to "spend wisely; we need a budget that taxpayers can afford; keep us safe." He said he "will continue to call for tools to stand up to drug traffickers in our neighborhoods and save lives" as well as "strengthen local solutions that support one another and shelter our neighbors."
Referendum results
Several non-binding referendum questions appeared on the ballot.
Brattleboro was among six Vermont towns that considered a nonbinding referendum calling for the towns to join an apartheid-free.org pledge for "freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people." That measure was approved 1,291–964.
Another question, requesting that the town's voters be allowed to weigh in on any plan proposed by the Vermont Legislature to locate a safe injection site for drug users in town, passed by a 1,540-860 vote.
An attempt to get the Selectboard to enact an "acceptable behavior" ordinance was also approved by a 1,368-1013 vote.
A similar ordinance was enacted last fall by the Selectboard. Voters petitioned to consider it at Special Representative Town Meeting, where meeting members rejected it.
A request to advise the board to enact an ordinance to seek compensation from property owners who require "a high level of enforcement response" was narrowly rejected, 1,215-1,013.
And a request to advise Representative Town Meeting to limit human services funding fell short of a clear voter consensus, with 559 voters asking for the funding to be set at more than 2% of the budget, 469 saying it should be between 1% and 2%, 437 saying no money should be allocated, 425 saying it should be less than 1%, and 418 saying it should be equal to 2%.
RTM member results
Voters also selected Representative Town Meeting members in time for Annual Representative Town Meeting, which will take place at the Brattleboro Union High School gymnasium on Saturday, March 22, at 8:30 a.m., with the option to continue the meeting the next day.
• Elected to three-year terms in District 7 were Ellen Capy, George Carvill, Annie B. Coughlin, Katherine N. Dowd, Amanda Ellis-Thurber, Amy Farnum, Heidi Fischer, Ruth Gorham-Houle, Christine H. Hart, Jennifer Jacobs, Christine Lynde, Dave Miner, Steven E. Nelson, Jennifer Smith, and Lindsey Worden.
Winners of two-year terms in District 7 were Pierre Capy, Jessica Doleszny, Michael Gantt, Andrew Shepard, Jill Stahl Tyler, Lila Thorne, Ross Thurber, and Brian C. Tyler.
One-year term winners in District 7 were Michael L. Bosworth, William "Neil" Manders, Heddy Pomazi, Kristen Ziter Taylor, and Joshua Traeger.
• In District 8, three-year winners were J. Eric Annis, Susan Bellville, Barbara Charkey, Eli Coughlin-Galbraith, Ken Fay, Bonnie Girvan, Denise Glover, Grace Guerra, Maya Hasegawa, Debra J. Heller, HB Lozito, Georgia Morgan, Rolf Parker-Houghton, Gemma Seymour, Isadora Snyder, and Robert Tortolani.
Jessica Dolan and Christine L. Hazzard were elected to two-year terms, and Isaac Evans-Frantz won a three-year seat.
• Three-year seat winners in District 9 were Tessa Anders, Roni Byrne, Rachel Distler, Peter Elwell, Robert Ferrante, Ruben R. Garza, Megan P. Gray, Jesse E. Kayan, Beth Kiendl, David Levenbach, Jo Lum, Kathleen O'Connor, Jacqueline Reis, Sonia Silbert, Apple Sullivan, Sarah Turbow, Laura Walker, and Lisa Whitney.
Elected to two-year seats were Alisa Arroyo, Hugh W. Barber, Kimberly Barstow, Deena Chadwick, and Elizabeth Wheeler.
With his videos of crime and law enforcement in action drawing mixed, polarized, and strong reactions - and with a deep digital footprint of broadly offensive and objectively cruel social media posts that stymied his high-profile and controversial attempts to build a political demand to address issues of law and order - Henry "Hank" Poitras came in last among the 33 candidates vying for the 17 seats for three-year representatives for District 9.
Virginia Ray and Jeff Potter contributed to this report.
This News item by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.