PARIS – Town Manager Sharon Jackson has revealed that an executive session by the Board of Selectmen last week was to consult with town attorney Alan Perry about Town Farm Road.
Jackson said Friday that she has reconsidered her decision not to announce the subject before the public was asked to leave the room for the closed-door meeting Monday.
“If I were to make that same motion (again),” she said, “I would have added on to it, to discuss Town Farm Road.'”
Instead, the motion written by Jackson and read by board Chairman Bill Merrill stated, “Move to enter into Executive Session pursuant to Title 1 M.R.S.A., 405(6)(E), for Attorney Client consultations.”
The board voted 5-0 to enter into executive session.
Jackson said Friday she had run the motion by legal counsel at the Maine Municipal Association before placing it on the selectmen agenda. She said she was told the motion was correct.
Maine Municipal Association spokesman Michael Starn was not available for comment Friday.
According to the Maine Freedom of Access law and an association memo, a motion to go into executive session must indicate the precise nature of the business to be discussed, in addition to including a reference to the exact section of the law that permits the session.
Jackson’s motion included the reference to the law, but did not detail the “precise nature” of the board’s business.
Jackson said Friday she was reluctant to tell the public the executive session was to discuss Town Farm Road because she was concerned about compromising the town’s legal standing. A group of Town Farm Road residents has hired an attorney in an effort to get the town to take over maintenance of the road.
Dana Hanley of Hanley & Associates is representing the Town Farm Road Association.
He has alleged that the town did not follow proper procedure when abandoning the road and responsibility for its maintenance in 1967. He also has said the town cannot declare a road abandoned when it periodically carries out maintenance or improvements, as Paris has done on Town Farm Road.
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