PERU — The Board of Selectmen decided Monday evening to meet soon to decide what to do about a misprint on the June 9 town warrant.
The warrant erroneously states the Finance Committee recommends a yes vote on Article 23, which asks residents to allow the town to raise and appropriate $10,000 to support operations of the Peru Community Center under the supervision of the Board of Selectmen.
“We did not recommend yes on that article,” Finance Committee member John Witherell said at Monday night’s public hearing on the warrant. He said the committee voted only once and the vote was not to recommend the article.
Town Clerk Vera Parent said, “(The committee) revisited that question a second time, and it was a 5-1 vote” to recommend passage.
“No. There was no second vote,” Witherell said.
Resident Dawna Kazregis said she was at the second Finance Committee meeting and watched the video of it. “There was no revote during that second night,” she said.
“I’d like to know where Vera got her information from,” Witherell said.
Parent said she was taking notes both nights the Finance Committee met.
“Well, that vote is wrong,” Witherell repeated. “We did not have a revote, because we had already voted to not recommend it once. We did not vote again after that.”
Witherell said he had a video of the meeting that would prove a second vote was not taken.
Parent approached the Board of Selectmen and began discussing what could have caused the discrepancy. After a brief discussion, Parent explained to residents that each of the articles had been numbered a certain way, and that later in the process of drafting the warrant, more articles were added, which changed the number of the articles. This meant information from a different article was attributed to the Peru Community Center article.
She said that because absentee ballots have not been printed, a notice would be placed in each request stating Finance Committee’s recommendation should read “No.” She said the voting booths would contain similar notices.
Witherell said, “All I’m saying is that this seems to be an ongoing problem with the recommendations getting changed or printed wrong.”
Selectman Jim Pulsifer said the Board of Selectmen would meet as soon as possible to address the issues on Article 23, and decide whether to place notices at the voting booths and with the absentee ballots, or reprint the entire ballot with the correct recommendation.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
