One thing you can say about Raymond Payson: He's got a lot of chutzpah.

Last week, Payson volunteered to serve on the North Attleboro Conservation Commission. Now, normally communities should thank citizens for stepping up and offering to serve on a town board, especially one that deals with technical issues like the effects of development on wetlands, as the conservation commission does.

But selectmen, fortunately, had the sense to say, thanks, but no thanks, to Payson's offer.

A former North Attleboro selectman, planning board member and public works director, Payson has a long history of using his public position to benefit his private business. Putting Payson on the conservation commission would have been a classic case of letting the fox guard the chicken coop.

Voters recognized this last spring when they booted him out of his planning board seat. Six months later, the state Ethics Commission fined Payson $5,000 for participating in planning board decisions that affected the value of property he and his brother own on Landry Avenue. The complaint against Payson was filed by developer Donald Corliss, who appeared before the planning board in the spring of 2006 with a proposal to construct eight buildings on 11 acres at John Dietsch Boulevard and Landry Avenue. Payson, who was chairman of the planning board at the time, and his brother own a seven-acre vacant lot on Landry Avenue abutting the Corliss Development Group property.

Payson stated he would not weigh in on matters related to the plan because of his status as an abutter. However, he participated in several decisions and wrote a letter to Corliss on planning board letterhead stating that utility work on the property was "at risk of not receiving planning board approval."

The state's conflict-of-interest law prohibits town officials from participating in matters if they have a financial interest. Payson agreed to pay the penalty and waived his rights to contest the Ethics Commission's finding, all the while blasting the ruling as "dirty politics."

During his more than two-decade tenure as public works director, Old Farm Realty, the real estate company owned by Payson, his brother and a former board of public works member, made hundreds of thousands of dollars by buying property at a low price and then selling at a high profit once sewers were installed - sewers championed by Payson. Some property owners say they were told by Old Farm that sewers would not be installed for years, only to find that the town was expanding sewers to their former land not long after they sold it.

Probably the best example of Payson putting his personal interests first was when he secretly got involved in the installation of a private sewer line along Route 1 shortly before the development of Emerald Square mall in the 1980s. Instead of the town profiting, Payson and his partners cashed in when connections to the sewer line were sold to the mall and other retailers.

Payson never faced any charges in connection with those allegations. However, there has been a clear pattern of Payson using his inside knowledge to benefit his bank account. To put him in a position to continue that pattern would be foolish. Selectmen, fortunately, recognized that and not one voted for him.

A fox needs to be kept away from the chicken coop.

MIKE KIRBY is editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached

at 508-236-0344 or at

mkirby@thesunchronicle.com.