Recent events in the town of New Gloucester have taken some surprising turns. Our selectmen held an executive session, the legality of which the Sun Journal questioned.

The board announced staffing changes and a 25-year town employee has quit her position rather than stay in a hostile work environment. After the resignation, and many hours of testimonials from the public, two members of the board moved to reverse the staffing proposal and it passed with begrudging votes from the other three.

Since those meetings, much discussion of executive sessions, memos and who makes what decisions in this town have followed.

Chairman Steve Libby does not seem to have a problem discussing what happened in executive session, or what was contained in confidential memos, but he is quick to harshly criticize those who even reference such items.

Likewise, he claims to want public input, but harshly and sometimes angrily silences community members who would like to speak.

I recognize that the agenda has an allotted time for “public participation,” but the chairman can allow citizens to speak at other times in the meeting.

Libby increasingly seems to operate under his own rules, making decisions, such as when to seek legal counsel, on his own terms. He decides what is OK to discuss in public and what is not. He decides who can speak and when.

We still live in a democracy but New Gloucester’s Board of Selectmen is run by someone who doesn’t always remember that.

Christopher Rheault, New Gloucester