BRADFORD, Vt. — Two Selectboard members submitted resignation letters last week. The departures come amid hostility and public outcry following upheaval last month on the fire department that saw the majority of members quit.

The firefighters’ departure has underscored leadership and communication challenges for Bradford’s five-member governing body and its chairwoman.

Selectboard Vice Chairman Michael Wright and longtime member Dan Perry III both submitted letters of resignation last Thursday night.

Wright chalked up his decision to two factors: threats he said he has gotten from supporters of the firefighters who quit last month, and to conflict with Selectboard Chairwoman Meroa “Peep” Benjamin.

“It’s the acts of bullying and dictatorship that got to me,” Wright said in a phone interview on Monday morning. “I felt like every meeting was contentious because people are afraid to speak.”

For his part, Perry, who’s been on the board for more than 20 years, said his resignation, which he submitted and the board accepted during the Thursday meeting, “has nothing to do with” the firefighters or with Benjamin. “I’ve been thinking about this for months.”

“It’s just time,” Perry said in a phone interview last week. “I’ve lost interest to be honest with you.”

Of Benjamin, Perry said, “She’s a pretty good chair. She does a lot of research and a lot of work,” he said.

By contrast, in his resignation letter last week, Wright wrote that Benjamin “belittled” him over the phone and said he needed to “stay in (his) lane” after Wright began discussing updating the bylaws and purchasing new equipment with the fire department.

Benjamin is the board’s designated liaison to the fire department. In an interview on Monday, she said Wright was overstepping by “attending the fire meetings and giving them information regarding the board. I told him, ‘If you want to be the liaison you can be, but there’s no need for two of us to be doing it.’ ”

Wright said his resignation also came in response to threats he said he received after 10 of the 14 Bradford firefighters resigned in protest of the Selectboard’s move to appoint a new chief and to expand the board’s oversight over the department.

As of May 8, the town’s roster of firefighters was back up to 15. None of them were among the 10 who quit.

The threats on social media, which he said have since been deleted, were along the lines of, “How would you like it if somebody set your house on fire with your kids in it?”

They left him “sleepless,” Wright said in a phone interview.

“I’m disgusted at some of the firefighters’ supporters,” he said in a recording of last Thursday’s meeting. “You have the balls to sit behind your computer or phone and threaten a board member’s life and the well-being of their family to the point where their children and wife are afraid to sleep at night because you’re so ill informed?”

In his resignation letter, Wright said he regrets how he acted and the language he used in the meeting.

“I let my emotions get the better of me during the meeting and did not conduct myself in the professional manner as a Selectboard member should. For that reason, I am resigning,” he wrote in the letter, which he sent to the board after Thursday’s meeting.

Wright’s resignation won’t be official until the board meets again to accept it, and Wright said this week he is reconsidering his decision.

“I just want to make sure either decision I make I feel is the correct one,” Wright said in an email to the Valley News Tuesday morning.

Benjamin, who’s been on the board since 2021, also was accused last fall of disrespecting her colleagues and creating a hostile work environment.

Nikki Stevens, who resigned from the Selectboard in October, alleged Benjamin and other town officials and employees misgendered them for months. Stevens filed a formal complaint to the Vermont Human Rights Commission about the workplace climate in Bradford government. Selectboard member Ryan Lockwood resigned at the same time.

Wright isn’t the only official who continues to have complaints about how Benjamin communicates.

“I’ve seen what Michael spoke of in his resignation letter, the authoritative position Benjamin takes,” Jean Carlan, the chairwoman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, said in a phone interview on Monday. “I’ve experienced it.”

Carlan joined the commission about a year before Benjamin joined the board.

“A year before her there certainly wasn’t this amount of tension,” she said.

Benjamin’s “contempt” for the Parks and Recreation Commission was apparent during this year’s budgeting process, Carlan said.

“She got to the parks and rec budget and she said, ‘Slash, slash, slash’,” Carlan said.

Carlan said she’s considered leaving the commission “so many times because of the hostile environment.”

In response to Carlan’s allegations, Benjamin said she’s “committed to insuring it remains and integral part of the community” but is “more budget conscious than some of the other board members” and supports “other public works projects that would benefit more people.”

It’s largely women who are treated disrespectfully, according to Marcey Carver, who served on the Planning Commission for over a decade before the Selectboard removed her from all of her volunteer positions in October.

“If you have a deep voice it goes a lot farther,” Carver said in a phone interview Monday.

Carver thinks part of the reason for the “warranted” public outcry over the board appointing Tony Stockman to the role of fire chief instead of longtime former Chief Ryan Terrill is that he’s a man and a third-generation firefighter.

“It heightens the whole episode,” Carver said.

Benjamin denied that she treats men and women differently or that there is a broader culture of sexism in the Bradford municipal government.

When asked about the characterization of her behavior as bullying, Benjamin said: “I ask hard questions and I expect answers. I guess that could be considered bullying.”

Benjamin said she has “absolutely not” considered resigning from the board in the past few weeks. “I feel that I have been elected by my peers and I am here to do a job and I plan on dong my job,” she said.

The Selectboard can either appoint people to fill the vacant positions on the board or hold a special election. Benjamin said the board would make a decision on what to do at its next meeting on May 22 at 6 p.m. in the Bradford Academy building and on Zoom.

Residents can petition for a special election to fill any vacancy.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603- 727-3242.