Civic discourse is far too vital of a right in a democratic society to ever abide the Underhill Selectboard's retaliation for residents Free Speech and exercise of the Right to Petition (both in Vermont Court administrative proceedings involving the First-Filed Notice of Road Insufficiency, and concurrently with the 2010 Petition on Fairness in Town Road Maintenance of Public and Private Roads." The wilful disregard of Underhill Officials includes emphasizing "All Selectboard meetings are meetings in the public, not of the public." (Underhill Selectboard Rules of Procedure Section F.1. on Public Participation). Public comments the Selectboard opposes are limited to an unreasonably short two to five minutes at the "Open Public Comment Period" while all other residents are permitted to speak reasonably in accordance to Roberts Rules of Order and oftentimes even permitted to continue speaking in violation of Roberts Rules. Most notably of all is the ongoing official policy of F4 of these Rules of Procedure grant the Selectboard Chair absolute discretion to "bypass any or all steps when he or she determines, in his or her sole discretion, that deviation from the process is reasonable and warranted..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any other Town of Underhill Vermont residents whose protected speech is being censored, willfully misrepresented, or responded to similarly to defamation documented in this October 9, 2023 Underhill Conservation Commission Meeting video excerpt (and other videos available online) are welcome to a complementary page on this website (for civil discourse on BOTH sides of local issues, subject to modest bandwidth requirements and no hate speech or executable files).

 

The past filing of Initial Pleadings and Exhibits 7 and 8 of Demarest's Memorandum in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss barely scratch the surface of First Amendment causes of action related to willful misrepresentation of speech to Underhill town officials and subsequent retaliation against the Demarest which would chill a person of ordinary firmness from continuing to engage in protected speech on matters of public concern:

  • Demarest wrote, "I would also greatly appreciate the Recreation Committee's support in encouraging the Selectboard to consider the potential of properly repairing the washed out segment of New Road/Crane Brook Trail in a manner that simultaneously preserved my longstanding southerly access to my home and land AND the ability of the public at large, regardless of physical ability, to continue to enjoy that public right of way...." (Exhibit 7, A-211 of Appendix
  • But Mr. Demarest's vantage point was completely misrepresented and responded to in public meeting minutes as, "After meeting with abbutting [SIC] land owner Dave Demerest, [SIC] It was determined he was not supportive of bridge idea and money was pulled out of the budget for a bridge on the Crane Brook Trail abutting Mr. Demerest's [SIC] property." (Exhibit 8, A-214 of Appendix)

First Amendment of The United States Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech...or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." 

Justice William Douglass’s Concurring Opinion in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) (The History of Pentagon Papers Case):

“Secrecy in government is fundamentally anti-democratic, perpetuating bureaucratic errors. Open debate and discussion of public issues are vital to our national health. On public questions there should be ‘uninhibited, robust, and wide-open’ debate."

Article 13 of The Constitution of the State of Vermont:

"That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of writing and publishing their sentiments, concerning the transactions of government..."

Article 20 of The Constitution of the State of Vermont:

"That the people have a right to assemble together to consult for their common good—to instruct their Representatives—and to apply to the Legislature for redress of grievances, by address, petition or remonstrance."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

I appreciate your time learning about these issues. Please use contact form to contact me and respect my personal property and privacy at my home and surrounding property by not going to my property unless personally invited.

We need your consent to load the translations

We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.