Berlin mayor, council discuss thoughts on board violation

Continued from Page 4 don’t need the (manual in my pocket).”

Nichols, agreeing with Orris’s take that the compliance board’s rules are ever-changing, said that the mayor and council aren’t infallible.

“My take on that is knowing, folks, that this is a live document that changes often, I’m not saying that we can’t be held accountable to an extent … I want you to understand that … there may be a time once and again where something may have slipped in there … that we didn’t see that (something) aligned and twisted to fit along with something that could be considered a complaint.

“We don’t sit here and say, ‘Let’s see what we can do here today.’ That’s not what we do. But do we get things wrong periodically? Yeah, we do. Especially with a live document.”

Tyndall said that he thinks the vast majority of the town’s personnel approach their jobs wanting to do the “best possible thing” for the people of Berlin.

“Nobody is out here trying to be nefarious,” he said. “Nobody is out here trying to circumvent the law. Nobody is trying to do things that are not above board.

“There are groups that oversee the work we do. The (compliance board) is an advisory group. We greatly appreciate their advice but sometimes they may advise that they may see or interpret things differently than we do. That is OK. There is a mechanism for that. But know that nobody up here is doing this in a way to circumvent the law or their opinions.”

Burrell added that the mayor and council must heed the concerns of its citizens to see out the best opinion possible on these matters.

“I want us to be receptive to those concerns that come,” he said.

Tyndall also pointed out that these matters often lead to valuable improvements, such as after the first violation a couple of years ago when the town was told that it had to ask for objections before going into closed session.

“We implemented those findings and it made the process better because we do solicit that objection that we aren’t trying to get to a point when we’re meeting maybe when we aren’t within the rights to meet,” he said.

“There are five of you that have to vote to go into closed session. That’s five different opinions on the board’s) opinions and regulation.”