MEXICO — The Board of Selectmen voted 4-0 Tuesday to accept a letter of resignation from member Kevin Jamison, effective Oct. 2.
Kevin Jamison Submitted photo
Jamison was unopposed in winning the three-year post at the annual Town Meeting in June.
“There are too many complicating factors to move forward in this position,” he wrote.
“There is a lot to my resignation but first and foremost to my resignation is my health and well-being,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “I will be fine but there are some things I need to address. I applaud any elected official who can do the job and not take the issues they are dealing with to heart. It has certainly been a severe weakness of mine. I am truly sorry if I am letting anyone down, but I ultimately have to focus on myself and my family.”
Jamison added, “The amount of negative aspects that come with the position far outweighs the prospective positives.”
The board voted to fill the remaining two years and eight months of Jamison’s term. Anyone interested is asked to get nomination papers at the Town Office and return them by Oct. 17. The election will be held Nov. 7.
In other business, there was discussion on a proposed nepotism policy, with most of the 35 residents attending members of the Fire Department.
“This is a policy that’s in a lot of towns,” board Chairman TJ Williams said. “It’s for family relations, mostly to deal with if there’s a power differential between family members for supervisory roles.”
He said a draft of the policy was posted on the town’s Facebook page.
The policy would apply to full-time, part-time and volunteer employees in the town, as well as members of town boards, commissions and elected officials. It also applies to present employees who later establish a family member relationship with another town employee.
According to the policy, the employment of relatives creates potential problems for the supervisor, the employee and relative, and co-workers, including shift scheduling, vacation scheduling, leave of absence requests, disclosure of confidential information, and charges of favoritism in promotions, evaluations and hiring. Those may impact the operations of the town and potentially impede the maintenance of an efficient and productive workplace. The public scrutiny of town operations mandates that the town’s governance, which includes the disbursement of public funds, be above reproach.
“This is not set in stone,” Williams said. “I want to make that perfectly clear … A lot of towns have a nepotism policy in their employee handbook … There are many different avenues that this board can take to make a worthwhile policy while trying to maintain the interest of all departments.”
“And I understand that firefighting, in particular, is a family business,” he said.
Fire Chief Mat Theriault said, “It’s obviously going to affect the Fire Department the most, as you said. Firefighting is a family event. It started back with my wife’s great-grandfather, who was the first full-time Mexico firefighter. His son was a full-time firefighter. And his son was my captain … and it wasn’t just us. It was the Whytocks. It’s the Wentzells. It’s a family tradition for however old that department is … I’m looking out for these guys’ kids (other firefighters) or those who will have kids because these are my guys. I’m looking out for the future.”
Williams said the draft policy has “ruffled a lot of feathers … we’ve got to try to do what’s best for the town. It’s not just the fire department. It’s townwide.”
The board was asked if it could wait on adopting the policy until the new selectman is elected.
“That’s fair enough,” Town Manager Raquel Welch-Day said. “There’s no rush.”
Williams added, “That’s up to the board. Anybody can motion to table.”
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