Planning Board Recusals

This article appeared in the Townsman, March 12 edition

As was reported first in this newspaper, there is a movement afoot to have Woodstock Planning Board members Paul Shultis Jr. and David Corbett recuse themselves from deliberations and decisions regarding the RUPCO application for building 53 units of affordable housing behind Bradley Meadows shopping center.

A letter dated February 27 addressed to Shultis and Corbett from Ethics Board acting chairwoman Rosanna Haggerty said that based on “an inquiry” the board had determined that two should recuse themselves. It gave no reason or basis for the determination, nor did the letter say who had made such “inquiry.”

Neither Shultis nor Corbett was invited to the Ethics Board to discuss the matter prior to the decision.

The matter was discussed publicly at the Woodstock Planning Board’s March 5 meeting after the letter was read aloud by the chairman, Mark Peretz.

Corbett and Shultis were curious to know how a letter that had been addressed to them individually, and which indicated that no other person or entity had been copied, should have ended up in Peretz’s possession. Peretz explained that he was “copied” on all letters from the Ethics Board addressed to planning board member irrespective of its privacy.

Both Corbett and Shultis rejected the Ethics Board determination, which incidentally contradicted a determination made by the Ethics Board last autumn, which had then included three members who were unceremoniously sacked last December and replaced with new members.

“I am not persuaded,” said Corbett, who unlike the chairman and a Planning Board member, Laurie Ylvisaker, has made no public comments for or against the RUPCO application (Peretz and Ylvisaker have both spoken publicly against the application, Ylvisaker before she had been appointed).

The Planning Board as a body appeared non-plussed by the Ethics Board letter. Allen Duane made a motion to reject the determination, which carried by five votes, Peretz and Shultis abstaining. Another motion directing that correspondence from the Ethics Board addressed to the chairman should be addressed also to the whole board also carried.

The Ethics Board is now comprised of Haggerty, Lori Rosenberg, Toby Heilbruhn, Jim Dougherty Joan Krotenberg.