Selectboard Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin made some grossly false charges against former Town Manager Peter Elwell in her piece in the Reformer on February 17. Why? Could it be because he had the temerity to express concerns about her impacts on town finances and on the atmosphere of town politics? McLoughlin’s disproportionate and misleading response seems to prove his point.
McLoughlin says Elwell favors defunding the police. He doesn’t. She says, correctly, that at one point the police department was down to 13 officers but fails to acknowledge that, in his capacity as town manager, Elwell hired Norma Hardy, the police chief who rebuilt the department and who developed and implemented the Downtown Safety Action Plan that McLoughlin supported. She implies that he seeks to create a new Community Safety Department with over $100,000 a year for an executive director. Not so.
We deserve better from Elizabeth McLoughlin who holds, and seeks reelection to, a position of public trust.
