TURNER – The Board of Selectmen will hold an executive session with legal counsel today on how it can appoint a fire chief, Town Manager James Catlin said.
The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Town Hall.
The special session comes after a unanimous decision of the board Monday to send a letter to Steven A. Fish “of the board’s intention not to reappoint” him as chief of the volunteer fire department he has headed for the past 10 years.
Even though the letter to Fish did not outline any means for him to meet with selectmen to discuss the reappointment, Catlin emphasized on Thursday morning that the motion was made to be an informative “intention not to reappoint.”
Selectman Dennis Richardson’s motion to inform Fish of the board’s intentions was approved unanimously. Board Chairman Lori Fish, wife of the chief, was absent.
She said she has been informed of today’s special meeting and plans to be there. Selectmen Chairman Fish did attend a meeting of the Turner Volunteer Firefighters Association on Tuesday night. The volunteers voiced support for the chief, overwhelmingly.
Lori Fish said the selectmen’s action in her absence struck her as “convenient,” and said voting to send the letter to the chief without cause “seems like backdoor politics.”
Selectmen normally make appointments or reappointments to offices with one-year terms just prior to the beginning of the new fiscal year July 1. The position of fire chief is one of several that are one-year appointments.
Steven Fish has been in Massachusetts on business this week and has not been available for comment. His wife said she did not think he would be home in time for Friday’s special meeting.
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