Shutesbury Select Board reappoints Pelletier as police chief in corrective open-session vote

Select Board · Meeting of February 3, 2026

Shutesbury Select Board unanimously reappoints Devon Pelletier as police chief in corrective open-session vote. The February 3 action was required after a complaint by Amanda Alec revealed the board had improperly used an executive session during its January 6 meeting to discuss the appointment. The board also publicly read a June 2025 email chain, as ordered by the attorney general's office, in which member Eric Stocker had accidentally sent a private message to all board members discussing resident Tom Seifert's fitness for committee appointment — a "reply all" error Stocker called inadvertent and apologized for.

Seifert, attending via Zoom, called the email's contents "unfounded and untrue" and said it may constitute defamation. Fire Chief Lenny Siwonka reported the department is pricing a replacement for its 1996 Engine 2, with quotes ranging from roughly $700,000 to $950,000, and the board voted to endorse a CPA grant application to rebuild the rotting porch at the M.N. Spear library ahead of a February 9 deadline.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of February 3, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.