For at least an hour and 50 minutes, most everything was peaceful with Epsom’s embattled selectmen and some of their most vocal critics.

On Monday, Feb. 5, about 30 people gathered at the upper level of the Epsom Fire Station to discuss a proposed amendment – submitted by petition – that would reduce membership on the board of selectmen from five to three. Most everyone spoke up in favor keeping a five-member board, but several residents suggested the impetus behind the change was a growing dissatisfaction with current board members.

If the change survives a March vote, an all-new, threemember board would be voted in in 2008.

“I do think we need to start clean,” said resident David Fiorentino, who’s accused the board repeatedly entering into closed door sessions without legal cause. “I think we need to get rid of every one of them here.”

The conversation – which remained civil – quickly evolved to include specific complaints with the current board’s governance, and more theoretical discourse on what the townspeople expect from their governing board.

The open dialogue between the board and the public seemed therapeutic to some since conversation, said several residents, is what’s often omitted from selectmen’s meetings. The board has also been loudly criticized for shutting the public out of deliberations of fired road agent Gordon Ellis’ appeal hearing.

“The public has to have the right to talk,” said resident Andrew Walton, who said it took him weeks to discover how much the board has been paying in legal fees, which is public information.

“Especially when there are big tax dollars being spent,” said Walton. “The public has a right to know.”

Several residents said the board’s firings of three well known town employees – Ellis, former fire Capt. Floyd Graham and former police officer Keith Yeaton – may have spawned some ill will toward the board throughout town.

“Yes there’s an awful lot of ill feeling,” said Resident George Foster, one of several residents who pointed to a lack of communication between board members and their constituents. “There’s a lot of undercurrent, and there’s an awful lot of untruth floating around out there.”

Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton said the board’s recent bouts with controversy have hampered productivity in some town departments. Selectmen meet every week, and meetings often last four or five hours. Still, said Yeaton, “The most frustrating thing is we don’t get much done as department heads.”

He likened the controversy to an emergency call. “In my business, as fire chief, we deal with these frenzies,” he said.

Several residents spoke up in support of current board members, and said they’ve routinely been the subject of attacks at their own meetings.

Selectman Bob McKechnie said he sometimes mutes his own communication during meetings so as not to get “torn into” by rancorous residents waiting for some sort of slip up.

“I’m trying my best to do what I’m doing here,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder why.”

He and other selectmen said they are often criticized for their silence on issues to which they are bound by privacy laws. He said selectmen have had to put the “hush clause” on certain topics.

“I hated it – I absolutely hated,” he said. “We haven’t been able to get the facts out.”

Selectmen’s Cochairman Joni Kitson said selectmen often have to limit public comment at their meetings just as a practical matter.

“There are only so many hours in a day,” she said. But said Kitson, “My phone is always open for phone calls.”

Residents approved the switch from a three-member board of selectmen to a five-member board in 2002. Voting day is Tuesday, March 13.