Infamous town employee clause

Select Board member Bob Carney had a letter to the editor in Thursday's paper in which he states,

"I have no problem in excluding this clause from future contracts. It is my belief that had the board approached all the individuals involved in these contracts, they would have agreed to remove this provision."

You can read the whole letter here. Someone has given an attorney-client privileged letter from Town Counsel Savastano to the Standard-Times in which ...
.. he characterizes the infamous clause in this way,

"Clearly it is against the best interests of the Town to allow these employment contracts as currently written, with the renewal clause included, to remain effective in perpetuity"

You can read the entire letter from Attorney Savastano to the Select Board here at the Standard Times website. The letter also contains the text of the clause.
The infamous clauses have put the town in quite a pickle and the renewal clause is only a portion of it. Additionally, the contracts provide that the Town must offer employment at the same salary and benefits in another position within the Town if the employee's job is eliminated. Another provision says that the Select Board has an affirmative duty to budget for and speak in favor of funding the employee's contract. I wonder if they would give up these provisions as well. Mr. Carney, Ms, Dias, Ms. Horan McLean, Mr. Miller and Mr. LeDuc were on the Select Board and signed six of the eight contracts with these clauses. Two additional contracts with similar language were signed by the first four members above with Ms. Gilbert now on the board. To her credit, Ms. Gilbert refused to sign the contracts.
Mr. Carney apparently feels that the employees would voluntarily give up these contract clauses. If so, I look forward to joining him in asking the affected employees to do so.
As the Personnel Board has noted, these provisions do not provide any benefit to the Town since the employee is free to leave at any time. The contract does not restrict their rights, only the Town's rights. It is puzzling to me why these eight positions were chosen and why the Select Board felt they were needed since, as I said, they don't provide anything to the Town. Perhaps Mr. Carney will write another letter or speak at a Select Board meeting and let us know.