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Social media finger pointing takes center stage at BOS meeting

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From left, Milton selectmen Andy Rawson, Mike Beaulieu and Tom Gray, with TA Heather Thibodeau, right, during a testy selectmen's meeting on Monday. (You Tube image)

MILTON - At a selectmen's meeting in which one selectman was accused of meddling with town employees and making statements that could open the town to lawsuits and another was challenged over his Facebook posts in which he attacked outgoing selectman Tom Gray, one resident summed up the unmistakably chilly atmosphere Monday night by saying the tension in the air was so thick "you could cut it with a knife."

The chilliness was partly predicated on Gray's submission of five Right to Know requests asking for email, text messages and minutes from any meetings between Selectmen Andrew Rawson and Mike Beaulieu regarding Gray's assertion that the two had made an agreement to hold off hiring a bookkeeper until after Gray left office next month.

The revelation of the five RTK requests came in a Lebanon Voice article on Sunday, spurring a long-running comment string when it was linked on Milton's Our Milton Home Facebook Page.

Rawson, who rarely comments on social media, claimed that Gray's departure would be a positive thing for the town, saying, (unedited) "The best thing that ever happened to this town is Tom will be gone all his potential inside deals hope the taxpayers haven't for got the landfill issue I certainly haven't the toys for tots this is all over not getting the TA Job well for good reasons best wishes to you tom and good luck to you."

After some back and forth over Gray's potential culpability, town activist Les Elder, who writes an occasional Milton column for The Lebanon Voice and has had his own share of run-ins with Gray, commented, "So this has never happened before? Tom Gray never talked on the phone or emailed another Selectmen? I just find it odd that this is coming out now and for what reason?"

Monday's meeting first became roiled during the selectmen's comments portion, when Gray openly chastised Beaulieu for what he called a derogatory remark he allegedly made about a budget committee member.

"It has to do with the accusation you made on Facebook toward a budget committee member and something like that has the potential of putting this town in a libel situation because you're accusing someone of being dishonest," Gray said.

Gray then said a person who had contacted him about the alleged comments asked that he urge Beaulieu to retract the statement and make an apology, which Beaulieu said he would take under consideration but said nothing more.

Gray then urged board members to be careful on social media, or they could put the town "in jeopardy for being sued."

He then looked at Beaulieu again, saying he was hearing complaints, presumably by town employees, that Beaulieu was at Town Offices every day and "interfering with the Town Administrator doing her job by being too visible to employees."

He added that Beaulieu's presence at Town Offices was in a way undermining her authority because employees might go to him for an answer rather than her.

Gray than claimed that he'd been hearing from town personnel that Beaulieu had been going around town offices and saying he's in charge.

"I've been hearing you've been going around telling people - not office personnel only, but employees - that you're the boss.

"Just remember none of us are the boss, individually," Gray said in conclusion.

During public comments residents in attendance focused on the sometimes unseemly quality of the comment string prompted by Sunday's Lebanon Voice article regarding Gray's Right to Know requests.

Several asked for the town to develop a social media policy for selectmen that would forbid personal attacks, the same type of policy to which town employees are bound.

However, Gray said that selectmen are not bound by that policy because they are elected officials, not employees.

Pressed on whether the board agreed in principal to trying to develop some type of code of conduct for selectmen, members seemed in general agreement, but Milton Police Chief Richard Krauss said any agreement would not apply to selectmen because they are elected officials who have no authority outside the board room.

One resident summed up what many in town suspect, that with all the high jinks and drama over the past few months, "does the board have something to hide?"

That question was not answered, however.

The meeting ended with Doreen Gray, the wife of the selectmen chair, saying people don't realize the pain they cause with mean-spirited posts on social media.

"When someone puts something not very nice on Facebook, you guys got to remember what repercussions are in the household."

"I apologize Mrs. Gray," replied Rawson. "My wife has (also) had many sleepless nights of me being a selectman."

Meanwhile, Rawson and Beaulieu have five days to respond to Gray's RTK requests.

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