Special Richmond Town Council Meeting for August 29th 2023

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
August 30th 2023

RICHMOND – At a special Town Council meeting on Tuesday afternoon, which lasted more than an hour and a half, council members were unable to reach a decision on whether to terminate Electrical Inspector Jeffrey Vaillancourt and agreed to continue the discussion at a future meeting.

Council Vice President Richard Nassaney recused himself from the discussion because he has a booth at the Washington County Fair, where the most recent complaints originated.

The meeting was a response to those complaints, which pertained to the comportment of Vaillancourt at the Washington County fairground.

The three written statements, dated Aug. 15 and sent to Town Administrator Karen Pinch, were signed by fair Chairman, Pete Fish, Sean McGrory, the Co-Vice Chairman of the fair, and Andy Lemol, the fair’s electrician.

All three complaints expressed discomfort with Vaillancourt’s demeanor on Aug. 15 and on the opening day of the fair, on Aug. 16.

Vaillancourt cited the fair with three violations, which, Fish wrote, should have been reported before opening day.

“I just feel that finding us with violations should have been reported prior to us opening on Wednesday thus avoiding giving the impression to our patrons that the fair is unsafe,” he said in his written statement.

McGrory wrote that he had been uncomfortable with the nature of Vaillancourt’s questions, which, he stated, seemed to imply that Vaillancourt wanted to be the fair’s electrician.

“In my opinion, it felt like he was trying to push his company/brand on us without going through proper channels (i.e. RFP Bids),” he wrote. “I felt like he was pushing his way to become the next fair electrician.”

Not the First Complaints

Vaillancourt, who was hired in March, is currently on probation following an incident at Pasquale Farms during which, he is said to have been impolite to the owner.

The council determined, at an Executive Committee meeting following that incident, that Vaillancourt could remain in his job, but that his probationary period would be extended, because of his reportedly abrasive demeanor.

That same leniency was not evident in the case of former Planning Board Vice Chair Nancy Hess, who was not reappointed to her position because a developer objected to her demeanor.

On Tuesday, the council once again found itself dealing with complaints about Vaillancourt.

With the complainants from the fair sitting in the audience, Vaillancourt countered some of the complaints, defending his behavior and his actions in citing the three violations and informing the council that the fair had multiple “open” or in-process but still to be approved permits.

Councilor Samantha Wilcox said she wanted the discussion to focus not on technical electrical issues, but on Vaillancourt’s behavior.

“The issue that I have is not with the electrical outlets, it’s not with the electricity,” she said. “I really just, I respect what you do as an electrician because it’s way over my head. The problem I have is, all of the complainants are complaining about the same thing; difficulty scheduling appointments, showing up unannounced, attitude and demeanor, trying to make sales, and business owners uncomfortable with those sales, and trying to sell his own business as an electrician.”

Council President Mark Trimmer said that receiving the additional complaints about Vaillancourt had warranted an assessment of his job performance.

“When you have a number of complaints and they all pretty much say the same thing, we obviously made a mistake,” he said. “We chose somebody who’s excellent as an electrician, technically highly skilled, but his interaction with the public leaves a lot to be desired and it’s really causing a problem, and that’s what the issue is. It isn’t a violation for a dunk tank or an outlet that’s upside down or a piece of chafed wiring in the wall. What we’re talking about is the way we work with people, the way we deal with people.”

Council member Michael Colasante, a staunch Vaillancourt supporter, deflected the discussion to imply that Pinch had attempted to hand-pick Mike Rosso, her choice of inspector, over Vaillancourt.

“The past inspector, not too long ago, that was the Town Administrator’s hand-picked – he was not qualified and he actually didn’t re-submit his application to us…Then, on top of that, Mr. Vaillancourt was on his way to the fair and he got an email…

Pinch said, referring to Electrical Inspector Al Vennari, “The electrical inspector was hired before I got here. He retired.” Mike Rosso was hired as interim inspector when Vennari retired, and he applied for the permanent position, but the council chose Vaillancourt.

“One of the inspectors,” Colasante replied. “I didn’t say ‘electrical.’”

Colasante pointed out that there were at least 20 unresolved electrical permits at the fair, which, fair representatives countered, were for participating outside vendors and other groups, and not the responsibility of the fair administration.

“There was a lot of pressure on Mr. Vaillancourt when he went into the fairgrounds, knowing that all these open - ended permits were pulled and never closed…and when he went down there, a lot of these permits were not compliant and they weren’t inspected and they continue to do the work, so it just seems like kind of like a rolling thing with the fairground, where people are taking a blind eye, all right? to what they’ve been doing over there.”

Trimmer repeated his concern that Vaillancourt’s behavior, not his technical competence, was in question.

“Again, my concern is behavior, not the violations, and the reason for this meeting is because of the behavior, not the violations,” he said. “We are talking about a continued attitude, or behavior, that began back in May when we had the first complaint when we had the first Executive session to discuss that and we decided, after a long, protracted meeting, that we would do a probationary period and hope that this behavior did not come up again, and now, we have two complaints, and possibly a third, that discuss this kind of behavior again.”

Colasante attempted once more to frame the issue as that of Vaillancourt being an outsider, and not the preferred choice of Town Hall insiders, including former Town Planner Shaun Lacey.

“Right off the bat, he didn’t like Mr. Vaillancourt, because it wasn’t his pick,” he said. “It wasn’t his choice. It wasn’t who he wanted in that office. It’s not up to Mr. Lacey or any department head to say ‘this is my pick’. Again, the Town Council, all right? the town charter, hires and fires.”

Wilcox tried to re-focus the discussion on Vaillancourt’s behavior.

“I find it hard to place blame on anybody else for Mr. Vaillancourt’s actions,” she said.

The council heard Vaillancourt’s responses to the three complaints. They also heard from the complainants.

Then, in an unexpected development, Trimmer, who had insisted that the performance review remain focused on Vaillancourt’s comportment, began talking about how the issue was actually poor communications between the town and the fair and also, how the fair’s infrastructure was inadequate.

Fish, the fair Chairman, said the two violations that Vaillancourt had cited had been corrected.

“We only had two violations – the Verizon truck and the dunk tank,” he said. “Both were corrected, okay? So, to sit here and say that the fair has all these violations that we have never gotten in writing, that we have made major strides to correct our infrastructure, we spent half a million dollars, to sit here and say that we have all these violations that no one has ever cited us for…To sit here and say we have all these infrastructure violations and all this infrastructure problem, I think, is unfair.”

Wilcox proposed continuing the meeting and Colasante proposed that Vaillancourt’s employment status should, therefore, no longer be in question.

Trimmer announced that he wanted Vaillancourt, the town’s two other inspectors, and the fair to work together and come up what he called an “action plan” to resolve any outstanding infrastructure and communications issues.

“At this point, what I’m looking for is a solution, not a termination, not a chop, bam kind of thing,” he said. “I don’t want to harm the fairgrounds by any means, by any way, shape or form. I want to improve what seems to be very poor communication between the town and the fairgrounds.”

Wilcox urged Trimmer to focus on Vaillancourt’s job performance.

“Respectfully, I really think that we should just have the job performance of Jeffrey Vaillancourt, within 30 days, … an open, real discussion about the job performance of an employee who’s still on probation,” she said.

As the chambers filled with people who had arrived for another meeting, council members agreed to continue the meeting to the second council meeting in September.

Colasante tried one last time to circumvent the discussion of Vaillancourt’s employment status.

“September 19, that all parties will get together and resolve this issue and the issue of Mr. Vaillancourt being terminated is a moot issue,” he said, adding that “good faith” discussions could not take place if Vaillancourt’s continued employment was still undecided.

Trimmer and Wilcox disagreed and the meeting was continued.