Your Voice: Behavior of town officials cause for concern

I have only now found time to catch up with watching and listening to the meetings from the past week. After listening to this audio recording in particular, I feel that I have to speak up. To me, it's not a question of which side of this argument was right or wrong. Rather, it is the behavior of our elected town officials in this matter that is simply unacceptable.

Don't take my word for it, listen to the audio yourself. Please. Because everyone should be outraged about this.

A few things to point out:

1) First, something positive. Larry Brown did an excellent job staying calm and level headed (I'm tagging Susan Foster Brown as I'm pretty sure Larry isn't on Facebook to read this himself). Anyone listening to this recording would be hard pressed to call it anything other than a planned "set up" to attack Mr. Elder. However, without taking sides, Larry Brown stuck fast to the proper rules of governance and attempted to keep order throughout this fiasco. Thank you Mr. Brown.

2) At the very beginning of the recording, you'll hear Mr. Brown explaining to the Board of Selectmen that it's against the RSA's to call to order a meeting without posting a proper agenda. The BoS soundly dismissed his advice and carried on nonetheless. If any of the selectmen are reading this, you should realize that this recording is evidence that you willfully violated those RSA's. For those who don't follow town politics, the RSA's are laws. Ironically, these are the same laws that Mr. Elder keeps questioning. One can surmise that his recent attempts to call these legal errors to the Town's attention are a source of the obvious disrespect that he's being shown here.

3) Mr. Brown worked throughout the entire meeting to keep order, but it was clear that some weren't willing to be reasonable. In response to the initial demands of the BoS for Mr. Elder to resign, a vote was held instead to elect new officers of the trustees, replacing Mr. Elder as the chair. Yes, there was some emotion, but everyone involved in the Library seemed to be willing to take some time to consider what should be done, and Mr. Elder himself asked for 7 days to think things over before making a decision as to whether or not he would resign. At around 23 minutes in, the selectmen chose to denounce this more peaceful solution, again demanding that Mr. Elder resign immediately.

4) Mr. Brown again tried to calm things over, but at the 30-minute mark it was made personal once more. This time, John Katwick felt it necessary to directly attack Mr. Elder, attempting to force the issue of his immediate resignation. I hope that everyone sees this for what it is, as it shows Mr. Katwick's true colors.

5) At the 32 minute mark we hear "lets not see this all over social media." So I'll add my thanks to Dennis for maintaining this page so that everyone CAN see this on social media. You don't get to act unprofessionally and then ask for everyone to cover it up for you, especially when you are elected officials and employees of the town government. Sorry. Here's a better idea: if you're uncomfortable to have your actions replayed on social media, think twice before you act in the first place.

The real problem here, for me, is that an individual who has been a tireless volunteer for this town and the people who live here was bullied out of office by those who disagreed with him. Was Mr. Elder sometimes heavy handed in pointing out problems with how the Town of Milton does its business? Perhaps. But that was Mr. Elder the person, not Mr. Elder the Chairman of the Library Trustees. Anyone who has taken the time to talk to him knows, he does what he does for the good of this town. Regardless of whether you like Mr. Elder or his behavior, town officials have a duty to treat all residents of Milton with equal respect.

This was NOT about the library or how the library was run, it was a retaliation against Mr. Elder as a person. It was deliberate and premeditated. The end result is that we have now lost a dedicated volunteer, we've deepened the divide between us all, and we have furthered the perception that this town is run by back-room politics.

- Eric D. Knapp

Milton