The Selectboard held an emotional special meeting Tuesday to talk about Clark-Canal Street, in the aftermath of Canal Street resident Tina Fiorillo's suicide last week. A number of residents attended the meeting, black and white, young and old, to plead their neighborhood's cause. In bleak repetition, they told the town as they did repeatedly last July, that neighbor Paul Canon's harassing behavior was tearing their neighborhood apart.

Barbara Sondag began by saying that the town had talked to the Citizen Police Communications Committee and a few citizens of the Clark-Canal neighborhood, but that they were just getting started as to a response to the suicide. The way we see it, she said, there are three issues. They are: Tina's death which is being investigated by the Police Department, the stress on the community caused by Canon's videotaping and harassment, and finally, police/community relations in general.

Apparently, the town had not worked to develop strategies based on discussion at the July meeting, perhaps due to the distraction of the town's budget problems this summer. From the discussion at this meeting, they appeared close to square one as to how to proceed. They spoke of meetings, investigations, and discussions. They hoped the neighborhood would help "steer the ship" as Jerry put it, with specific suggestions on how to solve the problems.

A number of Clark-Canal St. residents spoke to the board about the issue. Shela Linton said that they had exhausted the options afforded by legal channels, and had gotten nowhere. She read aloud the definition of stalking according to Vt. State Statute, which seemed to cover most of the community's complaints about Canon, and wondered why it couldn't be enforced in this case.

The town said that as a result of all the research they'd done on this issue in the last several months, they could find no legal justification to restrain Paul Canon, or any other citizen so inclined, from verbally abusing their neighbors, no matter how frequent, repetitive and abusive the person's behavior. There is no law against it in Vermont.

But while Barbara Sondag cautioned the press on making too much of Canon, Shela Linton said that she thought it would be naive to think that Canon's verbal harassment of Tina Fiorillo did not contribute to her decision to commit suicide.

Leah Stewart returned the discussion to Tina Fiorillo herself, who she said, was "not weak, but meek," the sort of person who you'd expect society to protect. She cried out to everyone and everyone failed her, Leah said.

A number of people felt that if the law did indeed make it ok to harass and abuse your neighbors, then the law needed to be changed. Jerry Remillard agreed as did Barbara Sondag, saying that they were restrained in a legal "grey area" and that a law change would be necessary to do anything about Canon's behavior. Others felt that outside experts might be able to help the town resolve the situation.

As they did in July, the neighborhood residents begged the Selectboard, Jerry Remillard and police chief John Martin to help them resolve the problems in Clark-Canal so that, as Leah Stewart put it, Tina would not have died without hope. For their part, the Selectboard and town representatives were not clear on exactly how the matter would be pursued.

Overall, the theme of the afternoon seemed to be 'coming apart.' Prior to the Clark-Canal discussion was a tense and disputed executive session that appeared to pit the town manager against the board on 'a personnel matter'.

Chair Steve Steidle convened the meeting at 4:10 pm. Town manager Jerry Remillard proposed that the executive session, originally on the agenda, be dropped in favor of adding the Clark-Canal St. discussion. Audrey Garfield immediately contested the postponement of the executive session and insisted that it take place at the start of the meeting while town lawyer Bob Fisher was able to be present. She then invited the town lawyer and the board to executive session, leaving Jerry Remillard off the list. The board agreed and rose to leave, at which Jerry all but shouted, "I'm sick and tired of these executive sessions that I'm not invited to." Audrey moved quickly out of the room, but Steidle remained momentarily, saying "I know, you should be invited."

Twenty minutes later, they all filed back in, and Steidle called on Jerry Remillard to read a statement. Jerry said, and I'm paraphrasing: I'm disappointed that I was not invited to the executive session. If it was about me, I should have been there to hear what you had to say. If it was about some other staff member, I or Barbara Sondag should have been there. I have been trying to work with you. You've already had five or six executive sessions to discuss me, and the only result has been that you've changed some of my goals.

Continuing, he said that he was disappointed in the micromanagement by the board and complained also that a board member asked him to resign without consulting other board members prior to doing so. Communication is a two way street, he said. As he understood his job, it was to work for and with the Selectboard. But, he said, the current board was not allowing that to happen. "I may be jeopardizing my career," he concluded, "but I can stay silent no longer."

The attendees absorbed that shock, and then Steve Steidle continued with the agenda. They never did get to the capitalization planning or the charter amendment. They may have bought some salt.

Steve Barrett said to me earlier tonight, on an entirely unrelated matter: "Do the right thing and avoid problems later." It strikes me that a little of that sentiment here might bring us closer to the "happy little town" that Leah Stewart so eloquently said we do not have, when she spoke about Clark-Canal.