Petition hopes to expand Killington Select Board to five

By Curt Peterson

On the Friday, Jan. 10 Merisa Sherman delivered a petition to town hall with the requisite signatures required to add an article to Killington’s Town Meeting Ballot on March 4. Bearing 73 signatures, the petition asks voters to expand the town Select Board from its present three-member configuration, to a five-member body.

The town clerk verified the signatures before the Select Board meeting Monday, Jan. 13. 

Sherman told the Mountain Times all the other commissions and agencies in town have five-member boards, and the Select Board would better serve the public if there were also five selectpersons.

“I believe in the democratic process,” Sherman said, adding she thinks the expanded board would give people a more democratic voice.

The three-member board and the interim town manager Tom Yennerell acknowledged receipt of the petition at their meeting, Jan. 13, and accepted the article with the slight legal edits suggested by James Barlow, the town’s attorney.

Board chair Jim Haff explained they can’t solicit candidates for the proposed new positions before the article either passes or fails. If voters turn down the proposal, there will be no new seats to fill. If it passes, the new legal wording sets up a schedule for candidates to file petitions to be on a May 28 special vote by Australian ballot. The new selectpersons would begin June 1.

“In the past eight years,” Haff said, “only one person has challenged an incumbent for a seat on the board.”

There were two people at the meeting in person, and three or four attending via Zoom (two of whom were reporting for the Mountain Times). Sherman herself said she doesn’t attend the Select Board meetings, but is herself a town lister and on the Development Review Board. 

“Where are the people who are interested in serving on the board,” Haff asked.

A motion to formally accept the petition as amended by town council was passed unanimously.