While I can’t speak for all of the 26 individuals who signed the citizens’ petition to make the Finance Committee an elected board, I believe that many who signed the petition wanted to spark an overdue debate on the current system the town uses to appoint Finance Committee members. Finance Committee members, under current statute, are appointed to three-year terms by one elected official, the town moderator. By convention, Harvard moderators have automatically reappointed Finance Committee members indefinitely. The citizens’ petition was certainly not meant as an insult to current committee members; the Finance Committee comprises capable individuals who have worked very hard for this town and deserve our gratitude. It’s not a people issue; it’s the process issue.
Towns across Massachusetts, including Harvard, are experiencing serious financial problems. This problem hasn’t just popped up; it has been brewing for years. It is a systemic problem: Massachusetts ranks 44th out of 50 states in the country in terms of state aid to localities. This translates into an unhealthy reliance on regressive property taxes that extract an unfair toll on working families, farmers, and, most egregiously, senior citizens.
A new approach to Finance Committee selection would help stimulate a fresh debate on solutions to our current fiscal crisis. Today’s appointment system lacks transparency; townspeople are by-and-large unaware of how Finance Committee members are selected. Unlimited terms mean that fresh perspectives, so vital to healthy organizations, do not surface. Whether the board accurately reflects the town’s population and diversity on an ongoing basis is therefore very questionable.
As noted in last week’s Harvard Press editorial, “some middle way … could be found to safeguard the balance of the Finance Committee,” including, among other possible solutions, an interesting town of Sterling approach referenced by Randy Dean, in which three votes are cast, one collective vote by the Finance Committee, one collective vote by the selectmen, and one individual vote by the town moderator. The citizens’ petition puts forward another reasonable solution of a duly elected Finance Committee. However the town decides to move, I think the “indefinite incumbency” issue the petition helps us address is a very important matter to be solved as soon as possible.
Dan Justicz
Woodside Road
