Earlier this month, the Board of Selectmen indicated that before reappointing some members to Town committees they wanted to hear their objectives. In addition, at least two committees were being asked to justify their roles.
The expectation was for interviews to take place this week. But that’s not what happened on Tuesday night. Instead, the board re-appointed all but one of the volunteers asking to re-up without publicly hearing from any. They also agreed to one committee’s request for new member appointments but postponed another.
If you’re worrying that Freddie Gillespie was the one un-reappointed, don’t. Both Selectwoman Bonnie Phaneuf and Selectman Dan Kolenda reassured the public and Gillespie that they value her great service to the Town.
They weren’t the only ones. Prior to their comments, six impassioned speakers sang Gillespie’s praises and urged the board to re-appoint her. Gillespie was up for reappointment to the Open Space Preservation Commission, plus her related roles as the OSPC representative on the Stewardship Committee and Community Preservation Commission.
Phaneuf explained that her previous comments about the OSPC were misunderstood.
At the board’s June 7th meeting, Phaneuf said she wanted to consider consolidating some committees. She asked to have the OSPC to justify its role. Acknowledging she might be criticized, she questioned the purpose of OSPC:
I know they are working with the Planning Board. To me, that’s a Planning issue. . . When do we decide that everyone is starting to trip over everyone?
This week she said that with two vacancies on each OSPC and the Trails Committee she had intended to explore combining the two. The selectwoman said that she spoke with Gillespie a few days after her comments and followed up at an OSPC meeting to clarify her intent.
At the June 7th meeting, Kolenda asked that members of committees with significant power explain their viewpoint and whether they align with selectmen’s. His examples were OSPC, Historical and the Zoning Board of Appeals. The year before, Kolenda had also asked to delay Historical reappointments, and possibly OSPC and ZBA, to reach out to a larger pool of volunteers to choose from.
In April, Chair John Rooney publicly supported a similar position, especially regarding the Historical Commission. On June 7th, Rooney responded to Kolenda’s and Phaneuf’s comments by asking selectmen to provide the Town Administrator with their lists of who should be called in.
It appears that the approach was reconsidered, since the subject wasn’t raised by the board this week. Instead the board (absent Rooney) opted to reappoint members across boards without interviews.
The one exception was a hold on the Green Technology Committee, since only one remaining member had agreed to re-up. Both that committee and the Public Works Planning Board advise Public Works. Phaneuf asked to discuss consolidating those committees with DPW Superintendent Karen Galligan.
As for new appointments, the board approved three new members for the Economic Development Commission, despite only two vacancies. The EDC recommended expanding their board when, after selecting two candidates to recommend for appointment, Kathleen Bartolini asked to serve.
Bartolini is a former member of the Planning Board who has also been serving on the Metrowest Area Planning Council and Metrowest Regional Transit Authority. The committee agreed that her experience and skills were too good to pass up. But they still also valued what the other two candidates brought to the table. (Stay tuned for a future post on the EDC and its quest to move out of its Ad Hoc Committee status.)
Meanwhile, a request by the ZBA to fill its full-time vacancy was put off. Selectmen voted to re-appoint both alternate members rather than promoting one. That allows them to look into whether they can reduce the full-time term lengths from 5 to 3 years.
Selectmen opposed having appointed members’ terms last longer than the Town’s elected officials. TA Mark Purple explained that the OSPC’s five year terms were up to Town Meeting, since written into the bylaws. He believed the ZBA’s may be based on state statute’s, but didn’t have that information in front of him.
I hope I’m misreading what seems like some questioning of having a Historic Commission — it was so good to see it resurrected after some years of not having enough members for a quorum…and their contributions on Town Meeting items have been invaluable. Gads… one minute we’re congratulating ourselves on saving the Garfield-Burnett House and next lessening attention paid to history.
It is one of the committees that has connection with the state Historic Commission (or
title like that) who offer assistance to local groups.
If lack of members is the concern, I would volunteer.
You are misreading. I never heard any selectmen raise getting rid of the Historical Commission.
In past meetings, the topic was raised of bringing in members whose terms had expired to interview before making reappointments. Or reaching out to recruit a larger pool of volunteers from which to compare and choose. But that didn’t happen.
It was the OSPC and Green Technology and Recycling Committee that were specifically mentioned as examples of committees that may be up for reconsideration. The first isn’t happening and the second is being reviewed due to lack of members and overlap with the Public Works Planning Board.