HARTFORD — A committee tasked with honoring veterans and first responders is reconsidering its vetting process after its selection of a veteran who was later convicted of embezzlement came under scrutiny during a Selectboard meeting last week.

For Selectboard Vice Chairwoman Kim Souza, the problem is that the seven-member Hartford Heroes Banner Committee is not town-sanctioned, but rather a private group with no municipal charge or directive. That private group is “making the determination of what the town is considering what we call a Hartford Hero,” she said at last Tuesday’s meeting.

“I would like to see a little more consideration around who we are, as a town, promoting as what we’re calling Hartford Heroes,” Souza said.

The Hartford banner project was the brainchild of state Sen. Joe Major, D-White River Junction, and Selectboard member Lannie Collins, of Quechee. Souza expressed her concerns last week as the board considered a request for approval of a second round of Hartford Heroes banners.

The banner committee accepts and reviews applications from families who want to see their relatives featured on a banner honoring their service.

“Our criteria were that anyone who was honorably discharged or a first responder would qualify,” for a banner, Dennis Brown, the committee chairman, said at last week’s meeting.

Once applications are approved, the committee requests permission from the Selectboard to hang the banners for a designated length of time, which is capped at 60 days by town policy. The Selectboard does not review each individual banner.

Among those honored by the first round of banners was Dan Hillard, a Wilder resident, financial advisor, and former chairman of the Vermont Republican Party. He was honorably discharged from the Army after serving in Vietnam, and died in 2019.

Hillard pleaded guilty in 1999 to embezzling more than $65,000 from a client, an elderly Bethel widow. He also was sued by three Hartford residents, also clients, for fraud, in a case that was settled out of court, the Valley News reported at the time.

Hillard’s banner was one of the dozen banners displayed in White River Junction throughout September and October.

“He did some time in the big house,” Brown said. “In the end, he served his country. He made a mistake later on in life and he paid for that,” he added.

Hillard’s banner was scheduled to be displayed again this summer, but it may be “in everyone’s interest to not display the banner in question,” Brown said by email Friday.

“We want to improve our process and are learning as we go,” Brown said by email.

He added that the committee plans to discuss its vetting process at its next meeting in March.

Collins disagreed with Souza on the need for more oversight of the banner committee.

“We have to have faith in that committee to do that task of choosing people who are appropriate,” he said. “At some point you have to give authority to somebody else.”

The Selectboard ultimately approved the second round of banners 3-2, with Souza abstaining. The board made no further demands on the banner committee about its vetting process.

“It’s not really a Selectboard thing,” Chairman Mike Hoyt said. “At the end of the day, if there are people up there (on a banner) and it becomes a story, it’s the committee itself that’s going to answer questions about it,” he said.

The “Hartford Heroes” banner project is one of many nationwide, and all roughly the same design featuring a photograph of a veteran or first responder printed on vinyl banners and including dates of service. Bennington, Vt., displays Hometown Heroes banners, and the Vermont towns of Fair Haven and Readsboro approved banner projects in December.

Collins requested in January 2023 that the board allocate $2,225 for a banner project honoring military veterans, which it did. But the request prompted pushback from other Selectboard members, who expressed aesthetic objections to the banners and concerns about the absence of a policy guiding decisions about the logistics of banner displays. After a lengthy and at time contentious process, the Selectboard approved a banner policy last June.

“As our new (banner) policy is being applied, it’s fair to say that it may need some edits/revisions going forward,” Souza said by email Monday.

Last December, Collins requested an additional $2,000 allocation for the banner project, which the board rejected in a 5-2 vote.

In Randolph, the Selectboard is undergoing a process similar to Hartford’s after members of the American Legion approached the town in November asking permission to hang Hometown Heroes banners on town light poles from Memorial Day through Veterans Day.

“There’s going to have to be some compromise” around the number of banners on display and how long they can stay up, Selectboard Chairwoman Trini Brassard said by phone Monday.

Lacking a town ordinance that applies specifically to memorial banners, Brassard was concerned that cursory approval of the Hometown Heroes project would open the door to “things that aren’t really government function,” she said.

She also wants to make sure that the town doesn’t honor “someone who made choices after they got out (of the military) that don’t reflect well” on the community, she said.

The Randolph Selectboard turned the matter of devising a banner policy over to the Planning Commission, which is reviewing the issue. If the commission recommends a banner ordinance, the process for approving it would take about 3½ months, Brassard said.

“I know there was some frustration and people thought we were overthinking it,” she added. “It’s not that anyone doesn’t support them, but they’re asking to access public poles and there has to be a process around that.”

The original Hometown Heroes banner project was installed in Harrisburg, Pa., in 2007.

Spearheaded by Pennsylvania resident Ruth Stonesifer, whose son was killed while on active duty in Afghanistan in 2001, the initial project honored members of the military who were killed in combat after 9/11, according to news reports on the 2007 project.

Stonesifer commissioned Allentown, Pa.-based Holiday Outdoor Decor to design and produce the signs, according to her website. The company operates several sign and banner businesses under different names throughout the U.S.

Holiday Outdoor Decor has claimed a trademark on the “Hometown Heroes Banner Program,” expanded its criteria to include all veterans and first responders, and shifted the cost of the banners to the families of those depicted. Inquiries to the Hometown Heroes Banner Program are routed directly to Holiday Outdoor Decor.

Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.