Politics & Government
Brookfield Republicans Discuss Tinsley, Vetting Process
Local Republican Party officials on how the party screens candidates and news that the First Selectman-elect is facing criminal charges.
Among the questions circulating around the news that First Selectman-elect Bill Tinsley is facing embezzlement and larceny charges in Vermont is how much the local Republican Town Committee (RTC) knew about the allegations and what could have been done to inform the public sooner.
During an interview Tuesday with RTC Chairman and Selectman-elect Marty Flynn, RTC Secretary Matt Grimes and RTC Vacancy Committee Chair and outgoing Selectman George Walker, party members asserted that they did not have any prior knowledge of the charges and don’t think it would have come out in the vetting process.
“I got the shock of my life when I got the call Friday,” Flynn said of hearing the news. “If this was a new candidate I could understand but this is Bill Tinsley — it was the shock of my life when I heard these allegations.”
“I’m disappointed that we did not have that information before the election,” he said. If it had been disclosed, “It would be known and the people of the town would decide if it was important.”
All three declined to go into further hypothetical conversations about whether the knowledge would have changed the internal nominating process.
“Would it have made a difference? I don’t know,” Flynn said. “But it would have been better.”
“It’s easy for people to sit back and second guess the process,” Walker said, but he doesn’t believe a stronger background check would have raised any flags in this case.
The three RTC members said the committee has not officially discussed the possibility of Tinsley stepping down and does not have any plans to at this time.
“We need to let the [legal] process run its course,” Grimes said.
Vetting the Vetting Process
Republican candidates for office in Brookfield go through a standard vetting process that begins with the five-member RTC Vacancy Committee interviewing potential nominees, then to the RTC as a whole, the party caucus, (possibly a primary) and then the general election.
Walker said the Vacancy Committee generally spends more time with newcomers to local politics — getting to know them and their background — than they would with more established residents.
“Bill Tinsley has been interviewing for this position for 15 years,” Flynn said, noting that he has gone through the vetting process many times in the past. “He was here long before I was. He interviewed me” when Flynn was first in front of the Vacancy Committee.
Walker said the Vacancy Committee held half hour to 45-minute long interviews with all the prospective candidates and spent even more time on the Board of Selectmen positions, some lasting over an hour.
Potential criminal history or current pending charges were not a part of those interviews, he said.
“I’m sure the Democrats didn’t ask [outgoing First Selectman and Selectman-elect] Bill Davidson if he was involved in any criminal activity in the last two years,” Flynn said, stating that the question would have been absurd.
Candidates filled out a standard form (used by the town for vacancy appointments) during the initial vetting process, however the form does not ask about criminal convictions or pending charges, Walker said.
“Going forward there’s a very high probability that the whole internal process will be handled differently,” he said of the Vacancy Committee. “How much more intense, I’m not sure. We have to be careful that the process doesn’t turn people away because we’re getting too involved in their private business.”
“You want to be as thorough as you can but you don’t want to turn people away” by being excessive and intrusive, Grimes said.
The fact remains, “We are where we are today,” he said.
“This is a disappointment but it doesn’t change the work we did to get [the rest of the Republican ticket] elected,” Flynn noted.
“And it doesn’t change the work they’re going to do now that they’re in office,” Grimes added.
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