PROVINCETOWN — Jeffrey Mulliken, vice chair of the Provincetown Planning Board, resigned from the board on June 28, one day after his bid to replace Dana Masterpolo as chair failed in the group’s annual election of officers.

Mulliken’s resignation leaves the fifth regular seat on the board vacant, to be filled by a select board appointment. And it highlighted a split on the planning board over the proper role of its five alternate members.

Board member Marianne Clements, a former chair of the board, prefaced the June 27 election of officers with a statement that referenced weeks of disagreement about whether the alternate members should be able to vote.

“Our last two meetings have made me aware of just how much acrimony and divisions there are on our board,” said Clements. “My vote is to give Dana and Jeff a second chance to work together, with Dana continuing as chair and Jeff as vice chair.”

Clements later told the Independent that she came to this decision after conversations with other regular and alternate members of the board.

Masterpolo was reelected chair with three votes: her own, Clements’s, and Mia Cliggott-Perlt’s. Mulliken and board member Donna Walker both abstained.

Mulliken was nominated to continue as vice chair but declined. Cliggott-Perlt was elected vice chair, with Mulliken and Walker again abstaining.

Clements was reelected clerk by a unanimous vote of all five regular members.

The five alternate members, who typically participate in deliberations on the planning, zoning, and land use issues before the board, did not vote in this election.

That’s a change from the board’s practice for at least the last several years, during which alternate members voted in election of officers and on other administrative matters, according to a review of planning board meeting minutes and the recollection of both Masterpolo and Cliggott-Perlt.

“The alternates get to vote on everything administrative,” said Cliggott-Perlt, but not on applications for special permits or other regulatory matters. Cliggott-Perlt has served on the planning board since April 2021.

That is not common practice on other town boards. Licensing Agent Linda Fiorella told the Independent that alternates on the licensing board do not vote, except when there’s no quorum of five regular members. In that case, an alternate is chosen to take the place of an absent member.

Anthony Iannacci, a regular member of the historic district commission, started on that board as an alternate.

“My time as an alternate was very important, as it allowed me to form opinions not only about the cases we saw, but how the decisions we made impacted the historic district and broader community,” Iannacci wrote in an email to the Independent. “I think alternates should be given the time to learn and observe and only vote once they become commissioners.”

All five alternate members of the planning board voted in the election of officers last year, on May 11, 2023. Masterpolo, Mulliken, and Clements were unanimously elected chair, vice chair, and clerk, respectively.

This year, the election discussion stretched across three meetings, beginning on May 23, when Mulliken cited the town charter and argued that regulatory board alternates should not be permitted to vote. The alternate members were displeased. Some saw Mulliken’s action as an attempt to undermine Masterpolo’s authority.

“I’d like to go on record to say that I think Dana has done an outstanding job, and this feels more like a coup than it does an election,” said alternate Stephen Roope at the May 23 meeting. “I’m not happy with it, and I’m not happy that we’re not allowed to vote.”

“It feels like a small-town version of Survivor,” said Hunter Gaiotti, the board’s newest alternate, at that same meeting.

After his resignation, Mulliken told the Independent that he was surprised at the reaction of the alternates and the way the election played out.

He said his interest in being chair, and his awareness of the town charter’s voting requirements, stemmed from his four years on the planning board and three years as chair of the building committee during the construction of the new $17-million Provincetown Police Station. He said he had declined a nomination for chair of the planning board last year because of the police station project.

“I thought we could be better as a group if we were all more conversant in the applicable bylaws, the ability to read and understand the applications and plans, and to be better at adhering to Robert’s Rules and Open Meeting Law and such things,” said Mulliken of his reasons for wanting to become chair this year.

“We’re all better off if we play by the same rules,” Mulliken said.

Mulliken and Town Planner Thaddeus Soulé said they had asked Town Clerk Elizabeth Paine for an opinion on whether alternates could vote. After consulting town counsel, Paine emailed the planning board on June 13 with a preliminary answer: that Mass. state law limits the participation of regulatory board alternates “to only acting in special permit matters and only when there is a vacancy on the Planning Board or an existing member is unable to act or has a conflict of interest.”

Paine added that it was the town counsel’s opinion that “alternates have no authority to vote on ministerial matters such as a reorganization of the Planning Board.”

Masterpolo emailed the other members of the planning board on the morning of June 27, saying that the state law in question “addresses associate members [but] does not directly speak to administrative votes or elections. It is silent to these areas. Town Counsel said that because it is silent it does represent a gray area.”

Masterpolo added in that email that the town counsel thought it would be possible to amend the town charter to allow alternate members of regulatory boards to vote.

Paine said that she is preparing a memorandum with a final determination about the roles and responsibilities of regulatory board alternates on all town boards. She declined to comment on when it would be completed.

Meanwhile, the current officers of the planning board favor expanding the participation of alternates.

“We want more voices, not fewer,” Masterpolo said. “The alternates offer significant contributions to town boards.”