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Board of Health member Tom McMahon will stop wearing a hat in the Select Board meeting room at Abbot Hall, and Select Board Chair Dan Fox concedes that barring the Board of Health from the room was “inappropriate.”
The two men said so in a joint release that spreads the fault to both sides. It calls the episode “hat-gate” and says it “escalated much faster than anyone would have thought or wanted.”
McMahon acknowledges that some residents could see a hat at an official meeting in the room as disrespectful, the release says. He never meant it that way, it says; he prefers to “tackle serious issues in comfort.” He commits to not wearing one going forward.
Fox acknowledges that banning the Board of Health from the room “could have been handled better,” the release says, and that similar situations should be discussed among members at a Select Board meeting.
The two also admit they have “butted heads in the past” on town issues and say both “care deeply for this town.” They agree to “swallow some pride, admit fault on both ends” and to work together where their boards’ authority overlaps.
The release follows the Independent’s report that Fox had told the five-member Board of Health to find another place to meet after McMahon wore a baseball cap there on Nov. 9. Meeting video shows he wore one at the board’s Sept. 14 meeting, too. About a month ago, Board of Health Chair Dr. Tom Massaro said, Fox called him about complaints, mainly about the cap, and Massaro passed the warning to McMahon.
The town’s posted records showed no Select Board vote, written policy or public meeting on the decision. Asked who has authority over such decisions, Fox said, “It’s [the Select Board’s] room.”
McMahon emailed the Select Board’s administrative aide the next morning, asking for the legal authority behind the decision and alleging that it appeared to be a “pretext for retaliation” for his criticism of Fox. He told the Independent that a chair cannot set policy alone, and that if the board adopted one, he would follow it.
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