This small New Hampshire town is barely over the Ghislaine Maxwell extravaganza, and two members of the Select Board quit in one week after a Fire Dept. Captain was arrested for sexual assault.
Let’s deal with the selectmen for now.
Here is the exit letter sent to a local paper.
“Dear Members of the Board and Bradford Townspeople:
My initial desire to run for Select Board was primarily based on a strong belief and confidence that I had a unique vision to offer, and could bring a good deal of my resources to bear in making Bradford an even better and rewarding place in which to live and thrive.”
Bingo! There is the problem right in the first paragraph.
Selectmen do not have a “vision” for a municipality. If you are full of “vision,” you belong on the Planning Board’s Master Plan Committee.
Here is what NH selectmen are required to do:
Selectmen Section 41:8
41:8 Election and Duties. – Every town, at the annual meeting, shall choose, by ballot, one selectman to hold office for 3 years. The selectmen shall manage the prudential affairs of the town and perform the duties by law prescribed. A majority of the selectmen shall be competent in all cases.
Source. RS 34:2. CS 36:2. GS 37:2. GL 40:2. PS 43:5. 1921, 9:1; 17:1. PL 47:12. RL 59:11.
“The selectmen shall manage the prudential affairs of the town and perform the duties by law prescribed.”
Here is the list of some things a selectman is required or prescribed to do. It is impressive. But there is no statutory definition of “vision” in the RSA’s.
I was a selectman for three years in one of NH’s most corrupt towns and never had time for “visions.”
So, it looks to me like this third selectman, Marlene Freyler, a local woman, who is supposedly the reason the two Board members quit, may in fact have performed a “prudent” action to save the Town of Bradford, New Hampshire, from the non-statutory visions of at least one of the former selectmen.
Update: It was NOT the Fire Chief but a Captain who was arrested for alleged Sexual assault.
“A captain with the Bradford Fire Department was arrested on Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman last spring, and has subsequently resigned from his position.
Russell “Rob” Steiz, 51, of 100 East Main St., Bradford, has been charged with one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault in connection with the incident.”
