Former Waterbury official calls for ethics investigation
May 1, 2025 | By Lisa ScagliottiA Waterbury Select Board member’s endorsement of an appointee to the Harwood School Board has prompted criticism and a call for an ethics investigation from a former select board member.
Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Last week, former Waterbury Select Board member Chris Viens criticized the role that Tori Taravella played recently in encouraging the Harwood School Board to disregard the select board’s recommendation to reappoint Elizabeth Brown to the school board.
“The choices were made by the Waterbury Select Board [of] who they felt should represent us at the school board level, and unfortunately, one of our select board members, Tori [Taravella], attended the school board meeting and weighed in on promoting Pam [Eaton],” Viens said, referring to the candidate the Harwood board appointed.
“To me, Tori's effort was a clear overstep as a select board member – to the point of being a very egregious overstep – to the point of almost calling for resignation. Because of it, I think I'm going to call for an ethics investigation on this. Look into it. See what you find for yourselves,” he told the select board. “We’ll be waiting to hear from you.”
The Harwood Unified Union School District School Board on April 16 voted to fill two of its Waterbury seats that were vacant following the March election when no candidates ran for those offices. State law allows the school board to appoint members to vacant seats in between elections to serve until the next local election, in this case, Town Meeting Day 2026.
The school board is to make the appointment in “consultation with the selectboard” in the town the vacant seat represents, according to state law. The provision allows for local input into the process; however, the school board is not required to follow the town board’s recommendation.
The Waterbury Select Board on April 7 interviewed four applicants for the two open positions and recommended that the school board reappoint Dan Roscioli and Elizabeth Brown, both of whom had served on the school board over the past year after they were appointed in April 2024. Neither ran for election in March, but both expressed interest in returning when the seats went unfilled by the voters.
The Waterbury board unanimously endorsed Roscioli’s return to the school board; it voted 3-2, recommending Brown, with Taravella casting one of the negative votes.
At its April 16 meeting, the school board made the appointments. (It also filled one vacant Duxbury seat, appointing Emily Dolloff, who was recommended unanimously by the Duxbury Selectboard.)
At that meeting, Taravella appeared before the school board to recommend her friend and fellow attorney colleague, Pamela Eaton, for one of the Waterbury openings. Although Eaton was interviewed by the Waterbury Select Board, it did not vote on her application – votes were taken on Roscioli and Brown’s applications first, resulting in the board selecting them to recommend.
Taravella told the school board she did not get to share her endorsement of Eaton with the town board. Also during the select board interviews, she did not mention that she has a personal connection with Eaton.
After attending the select board interviews, Viens said he watched the video recording of the school board appointment meeting. He took issue with what Taravella left out of her comments to the school board, given that she was just elected to the Waterbury Select Board in March after having served three years on the school board.
“You didn't divulge that you were a select board member, and you didn't divulge that you were a former school board member,” he said, addressing Taravella directly during public comment at the April 21 select board meeting. “You weighed in on your opinion about Pam so much so that one of the other school board members made the statement … that ‘Tori's push’ representing Pam was certainly a reason that he voted yes for Pam.”
Viens was referring to school board member Jonathan Young from Warren who nominated Eaton for the board seat. He pointed to Taravella’s endorsement and Eaton’s experience as a lawyer as reasons for his choice.
Chris Viens (seated center) comments to the Waterbury Select Board at its April 21 meeting. Around the table from left: Board members Kane Sweeney and Tori Taravella, Viens, board members Mike Bard and Alyssa Johnson, Cheryl Casey taking minutes. Screenshot
Taravella listened but did not respond to Viens’ remarks. Viens couched his remarks saying, “Please don’t take it personally,” several times. “It's all about the position and how you represent us,” he explained.
In addition to Taravella making a recommendation contrary to the Waterbury Select Board’s choice, Viens also took issue with the school board’s process for filling the seats.
The school board took two votes. Waitsfield member J.B. Weir nominated Roscioli and the board voted unanimously to appoint him. Then Young nominated Eaton. Given the board’s system of weighted voting, two absences, and the three vacant seats, the resulting 7-1 vote on Eaton’s nomination failed to get over 50% support until the board chair weighed in to cast the deciding vote.
The single vote against Eaton at the school board was from Fayston member Mike Bishop, who works for the town of Waterbury as zoning administrator. He asked whether the town board shared any comments as to why Eaton was not recommended. The board did not. He also noted that Eaton’s law firm does some legal work for the town. Waterbury Municipal Manager Tom Leitz later confirmed that, but said Eaton herself had never worked on any town legal matters.
Viens said he believes both Waterbury recommendations deserved a vote. “Dan and Elizabeth should have been the first two in line. And if Elizabeth failed, then there should have been the ability to nominate somebody else,” he said.
After the school board meeting, Chair Ashley Woods acknowledged that the process was not ideal. She echoed Waterbury Select Board members’ sentiment that they all would prefer that the positions get filled by the voters on election day.
But she also defended the school board’s steps, saying she interpreted the shift to vote on Eaton rather than Brown as the board’s preference.
Viens said he does not expect the school board’s choice to change, but he would like local state legislators to review the statutes governing how future school board vacancies are filled. Absent a candidate on the ballot for voters to select, or when a resignation creates an opening, Viens said school boards should be required to accept the choice of the town board. “I believe it should be the sole job of the selectboard to decide who they want to fill those seats. Period,” he said. “You have [representatives from] five other towns deciding who’s going to represent your town. That’s just plain wrong.”
Viens served on the Waterbury Select Board from 2012-2023.
Select board member Mike Bard, who supported Elizabeth Brown’s reappointment to the school board, commented on the school board’s action in filling the Waterbury openings, calling that process “flawed.” Short of changing the law, he suggests that select boards avoid recommending just one applicant for an opening if there is more than one contender.
“In the future, if the Waterbury Selectboard is asked our opinion, I would recommend either giving a ‘qualified’ or ‘not qualified’ recommendation on all candidates,” he said.
The better solution though is for candidates to run for election, Bard said. “Ultimately, the voters are better suited to choose who represents them not the school board or the selectboard.”
Next steps unclear
As for the ethics complaint, the Waterbury Select Board in March adopted an updated Conflict of Interest Policy that was revised to incorporate a new state statute into an earlier policy that was on the books.
The state statute says municipalities need to have “procedures for the investigation and enforcement of complaints that allege a municipal officer has violated the Municipal Code of Ethics.”
Waterbury Municipal Manager Tom Leitz explained that formal procedures for addressing complaints still need to be adopted. “The draft procedures did require that a complaint be made in writing,” he noted, so it is not clear if Viens’ verbal request to the select board last week would be adequate.
In general, Leitz said that the steps the town will likely put in place would involve a select board review that could take place in executive session (the policy also allows for the individual named in a complaint to request that the review happen in open session). It also might involve review by the town’s attorney. Afterward, the board’s conclusions would be communicated to the party that brought the complaint, Leitz said.
“An answer to a complaint, in writing, would be provided to the individual who issued the original complaint, and only to that individual,” he explained.
The policy so far lays out enforcement steps ranging from discussing the matter in private with the individual in question, to publicly calling for an elected official’s resignation or taking action in court to potentially remove an elected officer.
Regardless of whether a formal inquiry proceeds, Bard said he believes the matter could have been handled with more transparency. “Even though Ms. Taravella's recommendation may not be an overt conflict of interest, it is always proper to disclose any relations one has in the process to let decision-makers aware of potential perceived conflicts,” he said. “This is especially true with recent conflict-of-interest issues at the Selectboard.”
The select board in January responded to a conflict-of-interest concern regarding a $7,000 allocation of 2024 local option tax revenue to the nonprofit Waterbury Area Trails Alliance. Then-board member Ian Shea, whose partner is a WATA board member, voted on that question. Afterward, Waterbury resident Sandy Sabin raised a concern that Shea had a conflict. The board ultimately re-voted on the matter with Shea abstaining and the outcome remained unchanged.
Bard said he would have preferred if Taravella disclosed her connection with Eaton to the select board and likewise clarified her role as a select board member in the school board setting. “Disclosure at both the Selectboard level and at the School Board would have cleared up any ambiguity,” he said.
The newest member of the Waterbury Select Board, Taravella has acknowledged the concerns raised regarding her recommendation to the school board. She said she didn’t have an opportunity to elaborate to the select board about her connection with Eaton during the interview meeting, calling the matter “a learning lesson.”