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09/18/2018 04:00 PMSelectman Phil Sengle will resign from the Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC), though he said the decision was made before the Sept. 12 Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting at which some residents voiced concerns about a potential conflict of interest caused by his concurrent service on three town boards.
Currently, Sengle is a member of the BOS and BOPC, both elected positions, and was recently named to be a member of the Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC). Former first selectman Bruce Farmer has on several occasions objected to Sengle’s appointment to the CEC. Selectman Carol Walter has also stated that she felt that Sengle had a conflict of interest in various votes in which he has participated.
Sengle, Walter, and Farmer are all Republicans.
The CEC is an appointed six-member committee that meets with every agency in town to review proposed capital projects. The committee develops one-year and 10-year capital plans that are presented to the BOS and Board of Finance during the yearly budget process. As part of that process, Sengle would have some say over the Police Department budget.
At a BOS meeting on Sept. 12, Farmer addressed the board during the public comments portion of the meeting. Farmer said that Sengle has voted on police matters before without recusing himself, though Farmer did note that Sengle did recuse himself when the BOS voted to add him to the CEC on Sept. 5.
Farmer told the Harbor News that he spoke because more than 30 members of the public contacted him with concerns about conflicts of interest. Farmer said that Sengle has participated in discussions and voted on Police Department matters on numerous occasions.
“When you sit on more than one elected board, you are not serving the best interest of other board you sit on,” Farmer said.
Farmer said there was precedent for members of the CEC stepping down from other boards when appointed to the CEC.
Later in the meeting, Sengle addressed the controversy. Sengle said that an opinion from Town Attorney John Bennet sent to the BOS in November 2017 agreed that there was no conflict between him being a member of both the BOS and BOPC. Sengle also announced that he had already planned to resign from the police commission.
Sengle told the Harbor News after the meeting that he had alerted the Republican Town Committee (RTC) a week prior that he would be stepping down from the BOPC to allow the RTC to look for a candidate to fill his seat. Sengle denied that he was stepping down because of a conflict of interest, but because he felt it was “time to pass the baton” to someone new.
“I’m not doing it because I feel any pressure,” Sengle said.
Sengle said that he was proud of his time on the BOPC, and that he will formally resign once the commission finished interviewing candidates for open positions in the department.
Sengle said that as far as the CEC was concerned, he did not seek out the position but was nominated for it. He also said he understands the concerns about one person serving in multiple town board roles.
“I have and still do support the proposed charter changes” that would prohibit people from serving on more than one elected board concurrently, Sengle said.
Sengle expressed ire and called Farmer’s concerns “disingenuous,” noting that Walter, who works in the town’s Land Use Office, and Doug Traynor, who is a member of the Board of Finance and the Board of Education, were not mentioned by Farmer.
Farmer said he agreed that Sengle wasn’t the only public servant with a potential conflict of interest, but said that Walter had none. Farmer said that Walter abstains from votes where an appearance of conflict of interest could be inferred.
“It is extremely difficult to fulfill one’s duties impartially when you serve more than one elected board or commission. Therefore, a conflict exists even when no improper act or vote results,” Farmer said.
In January, Sengle was voted out of the RTC despite successfully winning a primary election and a municipal election. In 2017, Sengle was the running mate of first selectman candidate Kirk Carr; both successfully challenged the RTC-endorsed candidates Bruce Farmer (for first selectman) and John Giannotti (for selectman) in the primaries.
Sengle alleged that Farmer singled him out specifically due to Sengle’s successful challenge of the endorsed RTC slate.
“In my opinion, Bruce has a big grudge against me because Kirk and myself had the nerve to challenge [him] in the 2017 elections,” Sengle said.
Farmer rejected Sengle’s charges of animosity stemming from the 2017 elections.
“Absolutely not,” Farmer said, noting that he ran against Carr, not Sengle. “This is not a tit for tat thing, I used him as an example.”