PARIS – A disagreement over minutes from an Oct. 12 meeting led to the presence of two tape recorders at a Board of Selectmen meeting Monday.

Interim Town Manager Elisa Whiteley manned one of the recorders, while Selectman Barbara Payne manned the other.

“Whatever it takes so there’s no conflicts later,” Whiteley said Tuesday. “I didn’t feel comfortable with what was stated (about the Oct. 12 meeting), and I want to feel comfortable.”

Payne said Tuesday she has raised the issue of taping the board’s proceedings before. Since the Oct. 12 mix-up, she has taken Norway-Paris Cable up on an offer to use a video recorder. Payne will operate the equipment.

“I think it’s absolutely necessary,” she said.

What happened Oct. 12 is unclear.

According to Whiteley’s minutes, the board voted unanimously to go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter related to the Parks and Recreation Department.

After coming out of the session, the minutes state, “Mr. Hanson made a motion, with a second by Mr. Glover to hire Nathan Danforth as Parks and Rec. director if his police report come back alright. All voted in favor.”

Then, the minutes state, Hanson made another motion to enter executive session for contract negotiations. A unanimous vote was again recorded. Although no mention of the board emerging from the second executive session was made, the minutes also state that the board voted to “authorize Elisa Whiteley to fill out paperwork and sign.”

Payne has taken exception to the minutes because, she said, the board never voted to hire Danforth that day. Additionally, she wrote in a letter submitted to the selectmen Tuesday, “It should be noted that the board does not hire. The Town Manager does the hiring.”

Payne went on to say that Vice Chairman Bruce Hanson took improper action when he released Danforth’s name to the press three days after the Oct. 12 meeting – before, she believes, Danforth had been approved for the job.

Hanson’s account of the Oct. 12 meeting is more in line with the meeting minutes.

“The board, first of all, we confirmed the town manager’s recommendation,” he said. He added that the confirmation was “pending the outcome of the background check.”

Danforth was approved for hire, he said.

Hanson said Danforth has since turned down the part-time job, and that he is “sorry that politics had to enter into it.”

Whiteley on Monday announced the news and said Danforth felt the selectmen were “unprofessional.”

He “was concerned about his name being put in the paper early,” she said Tuesday, and the implication that he was under police investigation.

When asked about the Oct. 12 meeting, board Chairman Bill Merrill said he didn’t recall the board voting to hire Danforth. “We usually don’t vote on anything like that because it’s up to the town manager,” he said.

Regardless, tape recordings of meetings should help eliminate such confusion in the future.

“It was done before and it’s nice to have something to go back to if there are discrepancies like there are here,” Merrill said. “Everybody’s view is different on everything.”