If I could remove him, I would, but I cannot. The best solution would be for him to resign voluntarily. If he is unwilling to do so, I will meet with the Selectmen.”

Steven Fors, on finance committee member Christopher Thrasher

There’s been obvious tension for many years between the town side and the school side. My feeling very strongly is that that tension need not be there. If there’s anything I can do to try to alleviate that tension, including currently serving on both committees, I intend to do that.”

Christopher Thrasher

I think it’s important that the fincom holds ourselves as independent. When the group makes a decision, we should be doing it on behalf of the town as a whole.”

Finance committee chairwoman Karen Raus

Westport’s town moderator will seek by-law changes that would prevent elected town officials from serving on the finance committee, saying the current system allows for conflicts of interest, both real and perceived, that do the town no favors.

Fincom members voted unanimously Tuesday to support moderator Steven Fors’ plan to ask the select board to place a warrant article on next year’s Town Meeting ballot.

Said fincom chairwoman Karen Raus:

“I think it’s important that the fincom holds ourselves as independent. When the group makes a decision, we should be doing it on behalf of the town as a whole.”

“A friend of mine used to say facts are important, but sometimes perception is more important,” fellow fincom member Hugh Morton added.

Fors’ role

Fors, who will not seek re-election as moderator when his term expires in April 2025, is responsible for appointing members to the finance committee, which serves as an advisory group to Town Meeting. He wrote to members last month that his hope to amend by-laws to prevent potential conflicts of interest came to a head following the election of Christopher Thrasher to the school committee in April.

When he joined the school board, Thrasher was already a member of the finance committee, and Fors wrote that in discussions after the election, Thrasher told him he would resign his fincom position but later “changed his mind,” telling Fors he could instead recuse himself from fincom votes on the school committee budget.

“This is unprecedented in my 20-year tenure,” Fors wrote to fincom members. “To justify it by saying he can simply recuse himself from consideration of the school department budget does not solve the conflict of interest problem” and makes Thrasher “a useless member.”

“If I could remove him, I would, but I cannot. The best solution would be for him to resign voluntarily. If he is unwilling to do so, I will meet with the Selectmen.”

Thrasher won’t resign — unless

Thrasher, who is running for the Eighth Bristol District representative seat being vacated by Paul Schmid, said Thursday that if he loses next month he will continue to serve as an unpaid school committee and fincom member, and will recuse himself on fincom votes pertaining to the school department budget.

If he is elected to the paid representative seat, he said, he will retain his school committee seat but will resign his fincom seat, as he does not believe paid elected officials should serve on the advisory finance board.

Thrasher told fincom members last month that the fact that a prohibition is even being discussed for non-paid elected officials points to the strained relationship between the fincom and the school committee.

While the potential for perceived or real conflicts of interest is built into  town by-laws governing the finance committee, he said, serving as an unpaid volunteer on both it and the school board simultaneously can be a good thing:

“There’s been obvious tension for many years between the town side and the school side,” he told board members last month. “My feeling very strongly is that that tension need not be there. If there’s anything I can do to try to alleviate that tension, including currently serving on both committees, I intend to do that. The town and the schools are not separate entities — it is the Town of Westport.”

Still, Thrasher said that if the matter comes to a vote at next year’s Town Meeting, he will vote for Fors’ article “for the sole reason that there is currently no restriction preventing a compensated elected official from serving. Paid town officials or employees, elected or otherwise, should not serve on town committees other than as ex-officio members, as that too often presents an actual conflict of interest.”

Nothing personal, fincom says

Prior to voting unanimously to support Fors’ plan, fincom members said they agree the town’s by-laws are too loose and do not prevent a perception that a member is acting not in the town’s best interest as a whole, but in favor of another board on which he or she also sits.

That should change, they said, and the issue has nothing to do with any particular member:

“There’s legality and there’s reality,” member Al Lees said. “The legality may be that it is not illegal or inappropriate, but the reality is, we have an obligation as a finance committee to be as crystal clear and as sanitized as we can possibly be. It’s not personal, it’s procedural.”

Fors said as much, saying his plan is “nothing personal or (because of) anyone’s performance on the committee — just the principal.”

“I think he’s been nothing but professional,” fincom member Zachary Lebreux added of Thrasher. “He’s been an asset to the team. It’s nothing personal against him, it has more to do with a conflict to the town as a whole.”

Town vs committee loyalty

Thrasher said that while he accepts the proposed warrant article in principal and does not feel targeted by fincom members, “I cannot say the same as to the town moderator.”

“I have encountered significant consternation from the town moderator for much of my tenure on the fincom,” he said. “It is also worth noting that the moderator’s position on elected officials serving on town committees seems somewhat disingenuous considering he himself was just appointed to the short term rental committee.”

While he won’t push back on the proposed regs, “the only thing that I will push back on ... is the idea of loyalty.”

“I take very seriously my charge as both a member of the finance committee and the school committee. The charge is to do things in the best interest of the taxpayers and voters to the Town of Westport (and) I do intend to fulfill that charge.”

This is not the first time the conflict issue has come up. When current fincom member Michelle Orlando’s term on the school committee expired two years ago, she e-mailed Fors to inquire about a seat on the finance committee, but said she was told that it would have to wait, as he felt the request came too soon after her departure from the school committee.

“He wouldn’t allow it at the time,” she said, adding that he appointed her about a year later.