BY MATT SCHOOLEY

A Hopkinton selectman was chastised for sending public information to a newspaper owned by another selectman and not releasing it to all media outlets.

Louise Carr, who has been planning the Slusser Senior Center, raised the question of whether it is a conflict of interest for Selectman Scott Flood to send her e-mails to The Villager, which Selectman Tom Congoran owns, but not to other newspapers covering Hopkinton.

At the Monday, Oct. 29, meeting of the Hopkinton Board of Selectmen, the question of conflict of interest was raised for the second time in recent months.

Though Carr understands that once sent, she looses control of where her e-mails are sent, but she questioned Flood whether he had sent the e-mails to other newspapers as well.

“Why did you chose to only send those e-mails to The Villager? Why didn’t you send them to every newspaper in the area?” she asked Flood.

“I thought that The Villager engages in local news better than other newspapers,” said Flood at the meeting.

“It seems to me that is a conflict of interest that the only newspaper you have sent these e-mails to is one owned by a member of the Board of Selectmen,” said Carr.

A question of conflict of interest involving The Villager was first raised during an Aug. 13 meeting when the board was discussing issues with the proposed Saint Methodios retreat on Lake JoSilvia.

Selectmen Chairman George Langwasser noticed an editorial in The Villager speaking against the retreat, and said to Congoran, “I assume it was not you who wrote this?”

Upon hearing it was indeed Congoran who wrote the editorial, Langwasser asked, “Do you think you can make a just and fair decision when a vote comes on the issue after already sharing your opinion?”

Congoran said, “We are all entitled to and allowed our own personal opinions.”

Though hesitant to speak about Congoran’s case specifically, Langwasser spoke in more general terms about the potential for conflict of interest.

“I don’t see how one can write an editorial when that issue may come before the board and have that issue come before the board and be neutral and not biased,” he said. “That’s why I say one has to walk a very fine line in separating the duties of an elected official from the duties that are incumbent of someone involved in a newspaper.”

Selectman Peter Russell weighed in on the issue as well.

“Tom has a right to do what he chooses with his newspaper. I think if he’s writing editorials promoting something as a selectman, then maybe that shouldn’t happen,” said Russell, who didn’t agree with Congoran’s stance on the August issue with the Saint Methodios retreat. “I thought that was a horrible conflict of interest.”

Russell said sometimes even the appearance of conflict of interest can be negative.

“Here’s a perfect scenario. I was on the Economic Development Committee. I owned land in a zone that could be seen to benefit from the development of an exit ramp or a bridge. It’s the stupidest thing, but I didn’t want anyone saying that to me, so why would I want to do that?” said Russell, who removed himself from the committee.

Langwasser agreed with Russell that the appearance of conflict of interest can be dangerous.

“I try to steer the straight-and-narrow course to tell the public I voted in good conscience for or against that issue. You can be assured I don’t have a conflict of interest. Where we run afoul is the appearance of that potential conflict,” he said.

“If something comes before me, I have the option to remove myself if I have any potential for conflict of interest. The public needs to be comforted that the ones making decisions are not predisposed to make a decision in which they have an interest in.”

“I’d say the same to anyone that I said to George. Each of us is entitled to our own opinion, that’s why I got elected. People knew I had opinions coming in,” said Congoran, who was unsure why The Villager was the only newspaper who had received Carr’s e-mails. “I can’t speak for exactly why Scott sent it only to me. I would argue that for a very long time The Villager did a lot of balanced reporting and gave a good view of reality.”

“It gets kind of sticky. It (the e-mail) was given to a newspaper in which one of the board members has an interest in. If you are going to do that, I feel you should release it to all of the others, not just a select one. The public can hold that up to us and say that it doesn’t look that good,” said Langwasser.

“If you’re going to hide behind the First Amendment, there goes with that a responsibility to be neutral. You can express an opinion, but you have to be careful. When that opinion comes to a case where you are one of five votes there’s a decision to be made.”