LYNDEBOROUGH — Citizens concerned about the state of their town government will be holding a meeting Tuesday to discuss their options, organizer Lee Mayhew said.

“There is a group of citizens out there that is troubled and puzzled by the conduct of the selectmen,” said Mayhew, who served as town administrator in Milford and has decades of public service under his belt. “We want to talk about the facts, and the rumors, and see what we can do as citizens to solve this problem.”

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at the J.A. Tarbell Public Library.

The trouble in Lyndeborough has been brewing between the board of selectmen and the police department for months. At the crux of that strife has been the job title given to the head of the department — the “Officer in Charge,” or OIC.

The board created the OIC position after the town struggled for better than a year to part ways with former police chief James Basinas.

Basinas was fired by the board of selectmen in 2007, but the court reinstated him until a trial could be held to determine whether the town had just cause to terminate him. In December of that year, residents had a special town meeting and decided to take matters into their own hands by simply eliminating the position of police chief, thereby getting rid of Basinas without waiting for the court to decide.

With the help of a consultant, the board of selectmen created the position of OIC to serve as the administrator of the police department, without giving that person the same powers as a police chief.

Selectman Kevin Boette has said repeatedly that as long as he is selectman, there will never be another police chief in Lyndeborough. The problem as he sees it is there is no easy way for small towns to rid themselves of a bad chief.

But the OIC position, which essentially spreads responsibility for the police department between the officer in charge and the board of selectmen without any clear delineation of who is responsible for what, has proven to be problematic as well.

Lyndeborough’s first Officer in Charge, Capt. Thomas Burke, a 30-year-veteran of law enforcement, resigned last Saturday after months of tension with the board.

Burke has said he was under the assumption that he was supposed to run the day-to-day operations of the department.

But the board of selectmen became deeply involved in the management of the department, refusing to allow Burke to terminate one part-time officer — who happened to be the roommate of Selectman Donald Sawin.

Selectmen also cut the hours for the department, and demanded that Burke terminate his second-in-command, Sgt. Paul Roy.

The board also spent in excess of $15,000 in taxpayer money on a legal defense — though selectmen have thus far refused to explain who or what they were defending. The Attorney General’s Office, which found no wrongdoing in the town, was involved.

In the meantime, the board has decided to stop letting citizens speak at weekly board meetings, said Mayhew, and much of the selectmen’s business is being done behind closed doors.

The secrecy shown by the board, he said, has led to a general feeling of frustration, mistrust, and a lack of confidence in the board.

“We feel shut out from our government,” said Mayhew. “We want the government restored to our town.”

nfoster@newstote.com