Nottingham Selectman Race Turns Into a Grudge Match

Those driving around Nottingham are sure to have seen one of the many signs placed in front of homes urging support for a write-in candidate for Selectman: Jaye Vilchock.

Vilchock’s campaign has targeted Ben Bartlett and Matt Shirland, the two Selectmen running for re-election. These Selectmen voted to fire Vilchock from his role as Fire Chief - a position he had for the last 17 years of his 35 years as a member of Nottingham Fire and Rescue. Vilchock threw his hat into the ring at the last minute when he saw that it was only going to be a three-way race for two positions. The third candidate on the ballot is John Decker, a long-time member of the town’s Budget Committee, whom Vilchock has endorsed. 

While town-officer positions in Nottingham are non-partisan, usually the parties put up slates of candidates for Selectman and Budget Committee. This year the Democrats have not put forward candidates for Selectmen. Bartlett and Shirland have been previously endorsed for Selectman by the Republicans. At this time neither party has endorsed any candidates.

Selectman Bartlett made state-wide news last year. In 2022 Bartlett won a race to become a State Representative. He showed up for one vote at the legislature and never returned. After missing 135 votes, he resigned, citing ill health. However, an anonymous tip provided to the Nottingham Blog revealed that Bartlett had resigned not due to ill health but because he was an employee of the Veterans Administration, which put him in violation of the Hatch Act. The US Office of Special Counsel later reported that their Hatch Act enforcement efforts caused the resignation. 

The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from running for partisan office. On his declaration of candidacy form, Bartlett filed a sworn affidavit that he was not a federal employee. Lying on an affidavit is perjury. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office responded to an inquiry about whether the Attorney General was conducting an investigation of Bartlett, saying they could neither confirm nor deny that there was an investigation. Inquiries to the Rockingham County Attorney’s office and to the Office of the Governor have so far not been responded to. Only the County Attorney or the Attorney General can file perjury charges. 

In Nottingham the office of selectman is non-partisan. The Hatch Act applies only to non-partisan positions. Bartlett continued to regularly attend Board of Selectmen meetings despite his claimed ill health prohibiting him from attending the legislature. 

On March 20, 2023, in a lame-duck session and near the Interim Town Administrator’s last day of work, the Board of Selectmen heard testimony in non-public session from six individuals who presented several serious complaints about Vilchock’s management of the Fire Department. Vilchock was put on paid administrative leave while an investigation was performed. 

Vilchock appears to have had no history of complaints against him during his 17-year leadership of the department, where he was annually and unanimously re-elected to the position by the members of the town’s volunteer fire department. 

Vilchock’s wife, Sandra, who was also a member of the fire department was fired as well. In small New Hampshire towns having multiple members of the same family working for the town is not uncommon. Nottingham’s police department also has employees who report to family members. 

The turning point for Vilchock appears to have started with his successful effort to get a warrant article passed expanding the fire department to include six full-time staff so that the fire station could be manned 24/7. With this level of staffing, response times for emergency calls could be reduced from 20 minutes to 8 minutes. This brought several young career firefighters into the department who appeared to have had expectations about how a fire department should be operated that were different from how Nottingham operated. The investigator’s report identified repeated conflict with one of these new full-time firefighters: Frankie Bruno. According to the 2023 Town Report, Bruno was the highest paid member of the Fire Department, and the 9th highest paid town employee. Bruno has since left Nottingham to join the fire department in Ogunquit, Maine.

While the Board of Selectmen claimed that they first heard “initial complaints” on March 20, right-to-know requests revealed that the Interim Town Administrator, John Scruton, was aware of complaints in January and that he had met with the Board of Selectmen in February about the complaints. In this meeting, the board concluded that Vilchock had to be replaced. Scruton, an employee of Municipal Resurces, Inc., with whom the town had contracted to provide coverage during the period between when the town’s former Town Administrator had resigned and a new one could be hired, pitched to the board an interim fire chief to be provided by his employer. 

The board took no action at that time. Vilchock was not informed that complaints had been made against him. However, information released via right-to-know requests showed that following this meeting with the board Scruton took pains to find fault with Vilchock. The situation quickly became so bad that Vilchock filed a formal complaint to the board against Scruton. The board took no action on this. Instead, three weeks later Scruton presented to the board six individuals to testify against Vilchock. 

When the board put Vilchock on paid administrative leave it declined to have Deputy Chief Matt Curry take the helm. Instead, it installed Dale Sylvia as Interim Chief. Sylvia had once been Fire Chief in Newington, but resigned due to a conflict with town’s Board of Fire Engineers. Since then Sylvia has been employed as a part-time building inspector and health inspector in Nottingham and some other towns. 

After Vilchock was fired, the members of the fire department elected Curry to be Chief. The board continues to show a lack of confidence in him. It has put up a warrant article to increase the Chief’s pay by $60k. At the town’s deliberative session members of the board said this pay increase was needed to recruit a Chief. In 2022 Vilchock earnings as Chief were $14,330. 

Meanwhile, the department’s bylaws have been changed so that the Chief is now no longer to be elected from among the members of the department but instead, the Town Administrator is to select the candidates the members may consider, and instead of annual elections for Chief, the Chief is to serve indefinitely. This method arguably conflicts with the method the voters established by warrant article and is therefore illegal; although Selectman Shirland, who is the board’s liaison with the fire department, has said that the Town Attorney says it is legal. 

Shirland, however, was not elected to the board. One member of the board was absent the night that six members of the department spoke to the board about their complaints about Vilchock. Selectmen Tyler Eaton did not sign off on putting Vilchock on paid administrative leave. Instead, he quietly resigned. The board chose among two candidates to replace Eaton: Donna Danis, who had been Chairman of the board when the board decided to place Vilchock on paid administrative leave but whose term had then expired, or Matt Shirland, a Republican-endorsed candidate who had lost in the most recent election. The board unanimously selected Shirland. 

Although the fire department was accused of being dysfunctional under Vilchock’s leadership, the last time the department was fully staffed was Vilchock’s last day on the job. Since then the department has had several resignations and has had difficulty recruiting. The department has admitted in the 2024 Town Report that it no longer provides 24/7 staffed coverage. I have a right-to-know request with the town to provide quantification of how much response times have increased. 

Right-to-know requests have shown that when the board decided to conduct an investigation of Vilchock, Scruton again pitched his employer's services to conduct an investigation. The board instead chose a proposal from its Town Attorney, Upton & Hatfield, to engage an impartial investigator they recommended: Charla Stevens. 

When the Vilchocks let it be known that Stevens was the investigator, attention was drawn to Steven’s X.com account where she had posted strongly worded political opinions on subjects relevant to the accusations against the Vilchocks. This caused Stevens to delete her account - but not before the Vilchocks captured screenshots of it. 

While the investigation was ongoing, the Vilchocks found several other reasons to criticize the investigation. Contrary to town policy, the complainants failed to file written complaints. The substance of the complaints was never disclosed to the Vilchocks until after the investigation was over. The Vilchocks had no influence over who was interviewed by the investigator, or in what order. 

Stevens’ report turned out to be highly damning for the Vilchocks. The board’s firing of both of them gained state-wide attention, making them notorious. The board issued a long list of reasons to fire Jaye Vilchock:

• Discrimination on the basis of race and national origin.

• Discrimination against employees with disabilities.

• Threats, intimidation, and retaliation against union organizers.

• Retaliation against employees who have reported safety concerns.

• Failure to keep medical records confidential. 

• Failure to observe vehicle safety standards.

• Violation of the town’s notification policy.

When Stevens’ report became public through a right-to-know request, it was shown to have many flaws. Most particularly, it appeared that the investigation only sought out information that would corroborate a decision to fire the Vilchocks and it avoided obtaining any information that might contradict any of the accusations made against the Vichocks. 

State law allows Fire Chiefs to challenge their dismissals in court. Vilchock has exercised his rights here and has taken the town to court, ostensibly to get his job back, but obviously to set up the town for a defamation lawsuit. The trial will be in June.

In my analysis of the right-to-know releases initiated by the Vilchocks, I observed large amounts of redacted material that, while perhaps irrelevant to the Vilchock’s concerns, appeared to me to be likely abuses of the town’s authority to redact documents. On behalf of my readers, I filed a request with the state’s Right-to-Know Ombudsman to review these redactions to ensure that the town had not abused its authority. The Town Attorney responded to this request with a motion to dismiss, arguing that I had no right to be aggrieved by these redactions, no standing to object to them, and no reason to find them questionable. A hearing on this will be forthcoming. 

When I attempted to bring this topic up at the town’s deliberative session, the Town Attorney informed the Moderator that I may not do so because it was not about one of the warrant articles. This is contrary to what the New Hampshire Municipal Association says, both in its training materials for Moderators and its guidance for voters. 

Five days prior to the publication of this article, I emailed questions about Vilchock's campaign to Vilchock, Bartlett, and Shirland. Vilchock responded as follows.

Q: According to what has been posted on Facebook, months ago you decided to run for selectman, and later decided not to. Why did you first decide to run, then decide to withdraw?

A: “It is my observation Nottingham BOS is currently missing the mark.  Members are not prepared to reasonably discuss issues they face, nor possess the knowledge, history and skills to competently serve the best interests of  residents of Nottingham. My initial discussion with legal counsel I have retained for my RSA 154 Superior Court case recommended against a BOS role.  Since that discussion with counsel I attended a deliberative meeting and additional BOS public meetings which reinforced my observation and other residents public opinion Nottingham leadership does not research nor prepare to allow a meaningful debate regarding topics/issues they face.  In my opinion Nottingham BOS is adrift, relying solely on what appears to be poor advice from a Town Administrator, who lacks knowledge of Nottingham and legal counsel with a less than stellar record for providing legal advice to Nottingham.  Current BOS regularly demonstrates contempt, arrogance, narcissism and hubris in their interaction with citizens on a regular basis. I engaged my legal counsel after a write in, draft movement was begun. I subsequently was advised that serving the best interest of Nottingham as a BOS member would not impact any pending litigation.”

Q: Why did you change your mind again and decide to run as a write-in?

A: “Continued lack of transparency, disregard for the interests of taxpayers, lack of respect for residents who address BOS, failure to follow up with residents requests. Lackadaisical approach to protecting a reasonable tax rate. Nottingham deserves better from their pub;ic officials.”

Q: Is your campaign just a protest, or if you are elected, will you serve? 

A: “I am not running in protest. If elected I will serve Nottingham with honor and transparency.”

Q: If you become a selectman, how will that affect what the Board of Selectmen does with your litigation against the Town? In what ways will you have to recuse yourself?

A: “I expect to recuse myself from any discussion related to my RSA 154 Superior Court Case and anything related to future separate litigation related to my role as Fire Chief. Emergency Management Director and NH State Forest Fire Warden.”

Q: According to what has been posted on Facebook, your write-in campaign is specifically in opposition to the re-election of Ben Bartlett and Matt Shirland; and not in opposition to the third candidate on the ballot, John Decker. Why are you targeting Bartlett and Shirland? 

A: “I fully support Mr. Decker. 

“I do not support any current BOS members Bartlett, Morin, Dabrieo, Welch or Shirland. I am not targeting Bartlett and Shirland. Bartlett and Shirland are the only sitting BOS members whose terms expire at this time.”

Q: Why should voters vote for you instead of them?

A: “I have extensive experience as follows:

Resident and taxpayer of Nottingham since 1982.

Retired Electronic Engineer, 37 years combined civilian service with the US Navy and US Air Force.

Served in various capacities as System Engineer for Submarine Weapon Systems and Certified Acquisition Program Manager for Air Weapons Control Systems.

Served Nottingham as a member of Nottingham Fire Rescue for 35 years under Chief Gary Chase, Chief Richard Joy, Chief Jay Starr.

Served Nottingham as Chief of Nottingham Fire Rescue for 17 years.

First Nottingham Fire Chief to be licensed EMT.

Responded to emergency calls day and night. 

Led Nottingham Fire Rescue through construction of fire station @ 235 Stage Road, successfully transferred Fire and EMS operations to the new facility with no interruption in providing emergency services.

Utilized the Capital Improvement Plan process initiating a 10 year plan expanding Nottingham career staffing from 2 to 3 and ultimately 6 with berthing and 24/7/365 station staffing.

Led Nottingham Fire Rescue emergency services through a 100 year flood, major ice storm and major wind storm that isolated many areas of town, knocking out phone and electrical power for many days.

Led Nottingham Fire Rescue through the unknowns of the COVID 19 epidemic (Nottingham Fire Rescue never shut down and never missed an emergency call).

Led Nottingham Fire Rescue in membership application/aceptance into Seacoast Chiefs Mutual Aid District (in 2007).

Responsible for establishing a viable (level funded) Capital Reserve Fund for purchasing fire apparatus

Expanded the Fire Truck Capital Reserve fund to cover Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) replacement in 2019.

Expanded Ambulance Special Revenue Billing Fund to cover all ambulance operating expenses except for manpower, thus saving taxpayers $40K (2023 dollars) from the Fire Department operating budget.

Successfully prepared and executed the Fire Department annual budget since 2007. (Never had a deficit year.)

Successfully worked with TA Charles Brown and Chris Sterndale along w/many members of BOS, CIP Committee, Planning Board and Budget Committee along with fellow Department Heads for the betterment of Nottingham.

“If elected I will provide transparency, and respect to all. I will strive to be prepared and welcome healthy discussion with all perspectives.”

Neither Bartlett nor Shirland responded to my inquiry to them, although Shirland acknowledged that he had received it. I asked them:

“On June 21, 2023 you voted to terminate Jaye Vilchock from his position as Fire Chief. Vilchock is contesting this termination with litigation that will be heard in Rockingham Superior Court in June. This trial is likely a precursor to a defamation suit against the Town. Now that you are running for re-election as selectmen, Vilchock has launched a write-in campaign that, according to posts on Facebook, is specifically in opposition to your re-election. Why should voters not vote for Vilchock? Why should they vote for you instead of Vilchock?”

The election is on Tuesday, March 12. Before the election, the Nottingham Blog will publish its usual voters’ guide issue including responses to questions posed to the candidates.