Board Supervision?

I attended a selectmen's meeting at the end of June that involved a little dust-up between the board of health and the selectboard (or at least its chairman). The selectboard didn't seem excited about the issue; the board of health thought it more serious. I was amused by the discussion (especially the attempt by the director of the board of health to provide legal justification for what the board was trying to do) but not bothered by it, until statements were made by two members of the board of health. Rather than characterizing those statements, I will simply quote the minutes of the meeting: "There was further discussion regarding the board of health's members' role regarding supervision of the director/clerk. Two of the board of health members attending stated that they do not supervise the director/clerk. Chairman Cumsky disagreed with that assertion."

Wow!! I was unaware that members of boards in Egremont don't supervise employees of that board. I wonder who does supervise them. And if board members don't supervise that board's employees, I wonder what the function of the board is.

This is obviously silly. What I'd really like to know is why the two board of health members would make statements so off the wall. What's going on here? Why can't the town hall denizens just do their jobs and not engage in political infighting?