The state Ethics Commission received so many inquiries Wednesday about whether a newly elected Hopkinton town councilman could continue serving on the Chariho School Committee that, by 3 p.m., the receptionist knew exactly where to direct a caller as soon as she heard the word “Chariho.”

Steven Cross, the commission’s chief of investigations, said he had been telling callers all day that the issue was not one for his agency.

“We don’t believe there was any violation of the ethics code,” Cross said. “A legislative body has made the determination that he’s no longer on the School Committee. Nobody can put him back on except for the courts.”

Bill Felkner of Ashaway, who has served on the School Committee since 2006 and whose term expires in 2010, was elected to the Hopkinton council on Nov. 4 and sworn in Nov. 17.

He said he asked the state Board of Elections and the Ethics Commission if he could hold both seats and was told unofficially that he could as long as he didn’t vote on school issues for the town or town issues for the School Committee.

When he arrived at the Chariho Middle School on Tuesday for the 6:30 p.m. closed session that was to precede the 7 p.m. public meeting, there was no name card marking his place at the table.

He sat down anyway, behind the name card for Terri Serra, who had not yet arrived.

The meeting opened at 6:30 and the Chariho Regional School District lawyer, Jon M. Anderson, delivered his opinion that Felkner was no longer a member of the School Committee.

William Day, a Richmond member who was still chairman of the School Committee until his successor was elected about an hour later, said he was satisfied with that opinion and refused to acknowledge Felkner as anything but a member of the public.

(Felkner, writing later on one of his Web sites, the Chariho School Parents Forum at cspf.wordpress.com, said the issue of his membership was not on the agenda and thus the vote was improper. In a blog, he contended that the Hopkinton Town Charter allows him to hold both the council and the school board seats and that the School Committee did not have the authority to unseat him.)

A recess was called while Day called the Police Department and requested that an officer be sent to the meeting room. After the patrolman arrived, committee members walked into a separate room for the closed session, Felkner among them.

When they returned, Day again invited Anderson to speak.

The lawyer told Felkner that he had effectively given up his board seat when he was sworn in as a Hopkinton councilman. The proper venue to challenge that, Anderson said, was a courtroom.

Day polled the committee members on whether Felkner should be removed from the meeting. With Felkner’s vote not counted and Terri Serra abstaining, the vote was 5 to 4, and Day asked Patrolman Kelley to remove Felkner.

Hopkinton Town Manager William DiLibero said Wednesday that Town Solicitor Patricia Buckley would not issue an opinion unless asked to do so by the Town Council. The next regular council meeting is Dec 1.

dnaylor@projo.com