Sweeney to leave Waterbury Select Board, opening a fourth seat for a new member
February 1, 2026 | By Lisa Scagliotti Waterbury Select Board Vice Chair Kane Sweeney has announced he will step down from the board, creating a fourth opening for a new member after three seats are filled in the March 3 election.
Kane Sweeney speaks at a public meeting about the 2025 proposed town budget last January. Photo by Gordon Miller
Sweeney on Sunday shared his decision in a letter to fellow board members as well as with Interim Town Clerk Beth Jones and the Waterbury Roundabout. He said his resignation will be effective at the end of Town Meeting, happening on March 3.
A select board member since March 2023, Sweeney said a move to take a new job has prompted his decision to step back from his elected role.
“Since 2023, my life has been the Select Board,” he writes. “I’ve poured my all into this work and kept a stiff upper lip through the trials and errors that come with the duties and struggles of volunteer government. However, recently I’ve accepted a job representing working people in a different capacity, Union Representative. Unfortunately, this new job will indirectly conflict with my ability to be the Select Board member that you have elected me to be.”
On Monday, Sweeney starts a new job as a field representative with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 93, which has over 9,500 members in Vermont.
Waterbury’s town office staff, highway department and library employees are among the union’s newest members, having just completed negotiations with the town for their first contract. Sweeney and board member Tori Taravella were the select board’s two lead negotiation committee members, along with Municipal Manager Tom Leitz.
Last Tuesday, Jan. 27, the select board voted to approve the collective bargaining agreement, the final step in its ratification. Employees voted on Jan. 21 in favor of the four-and-a-half-year contract that runs through July 1, 2030.
Sweeney abstained from the board vote on the contract. He shared his job news following the vote.
Later in an interview, Sweeney said that prior to Tuesday’s meeting, he sought feedback on Jan. 23 from the town’s recently appointed ethics officer, Ingrid Jonas, and the town attorney about how his new employment might impact his role on the board. He acknowledged that it could pose conflicts of interest or appearances of conflicts despite the fact that his job would not involve working with the Waterbury municipal employees' union specifically.
Sweeney said he outlined in his inquiry his desire to remain on the board, and said he would plan to recuse himself from matters involving town workers in order to steer clear of potential conflicts. He said he would abide by the guidance he received.
On Sunday, Sweeney said that he had not yet received the feedback he sought from the other town officials, but he had given the matter more thought and made the decision to forego his elected office following Town Meeting. “I’m resigning in good faith and good conscience,” Sweeney said in an interview.
Having worked as a chef most recently at The Reservoir in Waterbury, Sweeney said he’s looking forward to his new job working with Vermonters who are union members and those seeking to organize. “I’ll be making working people’s lives better,” he said, adding that it is a tough choice to step away from his select board role, where he has advanced many policies in that same vein. “I don’t think I can put my whole into both.”
At an October select board meeting about a new housing proposal for downtown Waterbury, Vice Chair Kane Sweeney (on right) listens during public comment. Photo by Gordon Miller
Three years focused on housing
Sweeney was first elected to the Waterbury Select Board in March 2023 for a one-year term and he ran for another one-year term in 2024. Last year, he won election to a three-year seat.
In his time on the board, Sweeney has focused on advocating for more affordable housing in Waterbury and related housing initiatives, as well as improving the town’s disaster preparedness efforts.
“I’ve only ever worked on making Waterbury more affordable for working people. Whether it’s been giving ARPA funds to Downstreet [Housing & Community Development] to assist with the Marsh [House] building project, creating the Housing Trust Fund, the proposed project at Stanley-Wasson, the rental registry or any of the other numerous proposals I’ve lobbed at the other members of the board, my stance has always been clear: Working people deserve to live here,” Sweeney said in his letter. “The Select Board, since I was elected, has put a magnifying glass on the issue of housing and affordability and accomplished a lot.”
Sweeney also was instrumental in the creation of the town’s Natural Disaster Preparedness Committee in 2024 after floods in 2023 and 2024 required significant emergency response and flood recovery efforts that leaned almost entirely on volunteers.
During Town Meeting 2025, the Waterbury town officials present information and answer questions from the stage in the Brookside Primary School gym. Left to right: Moderator Rebecca Ellis (standing), Select Board Chair Alyssa Johnson, Town Manager Tom Leitz, Select Board members Kane Sweeney, Roger Clapp, Mike Bard and now-former member Ian Shea. Photo by Gordon Miller
Big select board transition ahead
Sweeney said he plans to serve until Town Meeting Day, March 3, when the select board plays a key role at the in-person town meeting where voters debate and act on town budget items and other questions.
Town Meeting Day will also be the final day for three of the five-member select board’s other members who are not running for re-election. Terms are ending that day for board Chair Alyssa Johnson, who is in a three-year seat, and members Mike Bard and Taravella, both of whom hold one-year seats. Board member Roger Clapp will continue after election day as he is serving a three-year term that ends in 2027.
The election ballot has one contender for the three-year seat, Chris Viens, who previously served for 11 years on the board up until 2023. There are three candidates for the two one-year terms: Evan Karl Hoffman, Sandy Sabin and Martha Staskus.
Given that Sweeney intends to serve until March 3, his office cannot be on the March election ballot, and the deadline for Town Meeting Day ballots to be set also has passed.
That will mean it will be up to the board, once it reorganizes after the election, to seek applicants and appoint a successor to serve in Sweeney’s seat until the March 2027 election. At that time, the one remaining year of his term would be on the ballot.
Looking ahead, Sweeney said he loves living in Waterbury and plans to stay engaged. “Just because I won’t be on the board doesn’t mean that I’m going away. I will continue to be very loud about working people and affordability. You can count on that,” he said, in his letter directed to “friends, allies, supporters and voters” in the community. “Thank you all for your continued support for affordable housing and working people,” he said. “I hope that the incoming board members will continue our work towards a more affordable Waterbury.”