Sometimes it is best to let a thing drop, let it slip into memory, kaput, gonzo, amen! And so too would we have let go of the sloppy and unusual manner in which the Selectmen let the Old Town Hall go for a mere $70,000. Why are we still carping about it? Because Jean Landis Naumann just couldn't let it go. Earlier this month Town Administrator Kevin Donovan put together a memorandum on behalf of Naumann. His report states: "Selectman Jean Landis-Naumann requested to place this matter on the Agenda to further discuss the history of the sale." Jean, obviously feeling wounded by the resounding defeat of the Selectmen's recent Special Town Meeting Article seeking to change the zoning of the building in order to help out Andrew Higgins, the low bidder. If you forgot the vote, it was 195-16 against the Selectmen's position.

Jean even had Kevin submit two sets of Executive Minutes, somehow thinking that this was helping the cause. Let's take a look at the first of those Minutes, held on August 14 of this year. Naumann herself was absent from that meeting and the Minutes indicate that Joe Keller excused himself from the discussion (We're not sure he left the room, but he should of). Sandy MacFarlane stated to the Selectmen that she had a done a "walk-through with Mr. Higgins who had told her of his intentions to renovate the building into an artist studio, a living area and low traffic office space."

We feel it was inappropriate for MacFarlane to provide the house tour for Higgins and then serve as his messenger for how he intended to utilize the building. Why, you may ask? Because a few minutes after revelation, the Selectmen, still in Executive Session, voted 5-0 to ask each of the two bidders what were their "intentions" for the building. But the Board already knew of Higgins's intentions courtesy of Sandy. And while we're on it... how could the recorded vote be 5-0 when Naumann was absent and Kelleher begged off on participation because he was a friend of Higgins. It would appear that the vote should have bee 3-0. While a mistake like this can occur on the Minutes, isn't anybody reading them? These were approved Minutes.

Another point to be made, where in the Minutes, either public or private, was there any discussion of how a zoning article managed to be written; no such discussion occurs in the two Executive Sessions that were held. All we see on August 28 Executive Session is the awarding of the bid to Higgins, "…subject to rezoning at Special Town Meeting."

Chapter 40 Section 15 of the Mass General Laws speaks to two points that are relevant for this discussion, first that the vote be by a recorder 2/3 (which it wasn't), and second, the Article should have specified a minimum value amount, which it didn't. Further, reading the Executive Session Minutes shows no reason as to why these two sessions were private; the bids were open and public, there should have been no negotiations going on with Higgins, but it appears there were, there's just no record of it.

Whatever Naumann was trying to accomplish by having Donovan put together a time line only served to understand just how underhanded this transaction was.

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