A local attorney is suing the town of Killington alleging town officials and a former town manager, mishandled municipal affairs, withheld information and hurt Killington taxpayers.
In his seven-page lawsuit, Melvin B. (M.B.) Neisner, a long-time attorney and Killington’s town moderator, highlights what he calls breaches of fiduciary duty to the residents and property owners of Killington.
He argues that the town damaged his own property by improperly replacing culverts and by raising the shoulder of the road in front of his home.
A long-time critic of former town manger, Seth Webb, Neisner focuses much of his lawsuit on Webb’s alleged shortcomings and inexperience.
“My ultimate goal,” says Neisner, “is to show that town officials have to be responsible and they have to take responsibility for their actions. And when they protect someone who is not qualified for the job, and continues to make mistakes, and all they do is defend it, that’s wrong.”
Neisner says that’s cost him and other taxpayers money.
"My ultimate goal, is to show that town officials have to be responsible and they have to take responsibility for their actions. And when they protect someone who is not qualified for the job, and continues to make mistakes, and all they do is defend it; that's wrong." — M.B. Neisner, long-time attorney and Killington Town Moderator
But Killington Select Board Chairperson Patty McGrath says Seth Webb was a very competent manager who approached the job differently than his predecessors -- something she says she and other select board members appreciated.
She says Webb notified the board in October that he was leaving after four years on the job for a new position in Woodstock. She says his departure had nothing to do with Neisner’s lawsuit.
Webb could not be reached for comment.
McGrath says Neisner had threatened to sue Webb a number of times, but she says she and others are perplexed by Neisner’s suit against the town.
“The entire lawsuit is wholly unmerited and illogical,” says McGrath. “His main complaint is about a town manager, whom he knew was leaving. And as you read in the complaint he also mentions other citizens and yet only he himself has really taken ownership of this.”
The lawsuit was originally filed in state civil court, but was moved to federal court because Neisner claims his due process rights under the federal and state constitutions were violated when the town did not turn over all the municipal documents he’d requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Neisner says he was angered when the town notified him that he would have to pay for many of the documents he was seeking.
"The entire lawsuit is wholly unmerited and illogical. His main complaint is about a town manager, whom he knew was leaving." — Killington Select Board Chairperson Patty McGrath
Patty McGrath, says the town did turn over large amounts of information to Neisner, to the best of its ability. But she says Neisner’s request was difficult to accommodate because it was so broad. “There was a volume of information he requested and when the town asked him in turn to narrow his scope he did not respond.”
McGrath adds that it’s troubling that someone who supposedly is so concerned about local taxpayers would force them to pay for a costly lawsuit.
Neisner has been living in Killington since 1978. A former traffic court judge, his law license was suspended from 2009 to 2011 after he was convicted on criminal charges for fleeing the scene of an accident and implying falsely that his wife had been behind the wheel.
