Patriot Ledger, November 28, 2007

By KAITLIN KEANE
The Patriot Ledger

SCITUATE - A group of residents have demanded a public meeting for the addressing of complaints against the town's conservation agent - complaints they say the selectmen have ignored.

The residents submitted a petition to the town clerk on Tuesday. It calls for a public meeting on their requests for action on a report containing complaints against Conservation Agent Vincent Kalishes.

According to the town charter, the town clerk must post notice of a meeting on the matter within seven days.

The report, submitted to selectmen on Oct. 30, contains written testimony and the public record of complaints against Kalishes. It was compiled by Selectman Richard Murray in response to residents' complaints about Kalishes' actions on projects before the conservation commission.

Although the inch-thick report was compiled and submitted, the residents' request for a decision on the matter has been avoided, resident Gloria Hollstein said.

The complaints stem from several projects overseen by the conservation commission, including the Herring Brook Meadows affordable-housing project.

One of the complaints is that Kalishes failed to properly recuse himself from commission meetings about Herring Brook even though he had acknowledged a conflict of interest because of his wife's ownership of part of the project site.

''We have asked for a decision from the selectmen and we want them to say whether or not these are improprieties,'' Hollstein said.

Hollstein lives near the project site and submitted the petition on behalf of the other residents. More than 50 people had signed the petition.

The residents are not calling for selectmen to take action against Kalishesm, but they want the board to make a decision based on the information in the report, Hollstein said.

''My concerns are that if all these dots do connect - then what we potentially may have is the appearance of a violation of public trust,'' said Murray, who is the selectmen's liaison to the conservation commission.

Copies of commission meeting minutes in the report show that Kalishes first recused himself from speaking about the Herring Brook project at a conservation commission meeting in 2004 but failed to do so at several subsequent meetings where the project was discussed.

Although Kalishes is not recorded as having participated in those discussions, Murray said he is required to formally state his recusal.

The report includes written complaints in which residents allege that Kalishes remained involved in the case. In a signed affidavit, Hollstein states that Kalishes failed to acknowledge his conflict when she approached him for advice on appealing the delineation of wetlands within the Herring Brook site.

The report also includes complaints about Kalishes' actions on the following matters:

• Trails, parks and a bridge that are being overseen by the conservation commission in the area of Herring Brook. Minutes show that Kalishes did not recuse himself from meetings in which these projects were discussed in the context of Herring Brook.
• The acquisition and use of $245,000 in MBTA fines that were used in the above-mentioned projects.
• A development proposal by commission member Mark Stewart for land opposite 28 Collier Road. The report says Kalishes allegedly failed to share information from neighbors and selectmen about the project with commission members.
• A case in Humarock in which Kalishes allegedly ordered removal of a concrete wall, in which residents complain that he was unresponsive and unfamiliar with appropriate procedure.

Murray said the combination of written complaints, information from public records and meeting minutes give the appearance of a consistent pattern of potentially inappropriate behavior by Kalishes.

A copy of the executive summary of the report is available here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.