I served Brunswick as its natural resources planner for five years, and have been a member of our Planning Board since 2008. It will be my honor to take the oath of office as a town councilor representing District 2 this January.

My seat on the Planning Board will be vacated then. Normally, the council fills vacancies after they occur. Until now, the council has apparently never attempted to fill an anticipated, future vacancy, according to the town clerk’s research.

I reasonably expected to help select the Planning Board member who would be my replacement, because there is no vacancy until I become a town councilor.

But this time, this Town Council plans to take the unprecedented step of appointing the Planning Board seat before it is actually vacant. This is occurring in the last few days of a contentious term, at a time departing Councilors Ben Tucker and Margo Knight can still vote.

While three candidates applied for the Planning Board position in a highly shortened application period, only two are being considered. One of them is recent Town Council candidate Alison Harris.

Just this week, Ms. Harris expressed dismay in this paper at being called the candidate of the “status quo” by her opponents (“Nov. election exposes rifts amid council,” Nov. 27, Page A1). Ms. Harris essentially invited this assessment by seeking the endorsement of several members of current and past Town Councils, including Ms. Knight and Mr. Tucker, and publishing the endorsements in the paper.

This, and other active participation in a Town Council race by seated councilors, violated a long-standing — and, in my view, wise — past practice.

The present Town Council would create the appearance of extracting a post-election win for their preferred candidate by appointing her to the Planning Board in a highly irregular move.

Because this action may not even be legal, tax dollars were spent to solicit an attorney’s opinion. That opinion does not provide a ringing endorsement.

If the departing town councilors invade the authority of the future council, the next Town Council may be faced with another unprecedented move: whether to consider suing itself next year.

Lost in this raw exercise in political power is the goodwill of the next Town Council, and of the Planning Board itself.

Brunswick has had a very professional Planning Board. Keeping overt politics off the board serves Brunswick best, not just because applicants deserve an impartial hearing, but because the board acts in a legal capacity for the town. Selecting candidates through the proper process helps protect our town, and engenders the respect the board deserves.

I sought to serve Brunswick on the Planning Board because I felt my years of permitting and land-use planning in the private sector, and relevant local experience as our natural resources planner, would be helpful to this community.

I’ve worked across the state to help ensure that wildlife and Maine’s natural world continue to thrive in harmony with development and change.

Brunswick voters clearly demonstrate their strong commitment to our natural resources in referendum and zoning questions. My election to the Town Council should have secured my role in helping select my successor.

Ensuring that Brunswick’s conservation values continue to be represented would be my priority for our Planning Board. Appointing candidates in a transparent, consistent and unquestionably legal process, should be the priority for everyone as we begin to rewrite our zoning ordinance.

As a current Planning Board member and he future town councilor for District 2, I am asking the Town Council to refrain from taking this unwise and unnecessary action.

Our council, Planning Board and all three candidates to replace me would be better served by a process that is unclouded by the current hard feelings, and one which is unquestionably proper.

STEVE WALKER is a member of the Brunswick Planning Board and was elected District 2 town councilor in November.