Despite outspoken advocates to maintain the status quo, a majority of Town Meeting voters asked for a study of the way Finance Committee members are appointed and how long they should serve. Now Finance Committee members are appointed for an unlimited number of terms by the town moderator. A citizens’ petition requested that they be elected for limited terms. The selectmen placed a second article on the warrant that called for a committee to study whether Harvard should change the manner of selection and length of terms of the Finance Committee. The group would be composed of the moderator; two members each from the Finance Committee, Board of Selectmen, and School Committee, chosen by their respective boards; and two members of the public selected by the moderator. The committee would research the practices of other towns, hold public hearings, and issue a report by October 30, 2007.
Moderator Dave “Doc” Westerling stepped down from the podium for the two articles, 18 and 19, and asked West Bare Hill Road resident Tom Daniells to moderate. Selectman Bill Marinelli, after reading the motion, said that the citizens’ petition, which calls for making Finance Committee members subject to election, “was useful in provoking debate, but was brought forward with little time for fact-finding.” He maintained that the selectmen’s proposal would allow “ample time for debate before the next annual town meeting.”
Stu Sklar, one of the authors of the citizens’ petition who has since been elected to the School Committee, said, “Of the seven members of FinCom, exactly one has school-aged children. I’m not sure my views are being represented.” Sklar is a proponent of limited terms for members and he questioned the need for long-term institutional memory. “I submit, two terms—six years—is enough,” he said. He said that he would be willing to support the selectmen’s article instead of his own, “if the moderator doesn’t get three votes” by appointing the two members of the public to the study committee. Resident Laura Martineau seconded his opinion and added that the citizens’ petition “seeks to replace the politics of the few with the politics of the many.”
Resident John Marshall suggested that the articles are consistent with a pattern in Harvard of “changing the rules because we don’t like the way things are going.” He spoke in favor of the long-standing tradition of appointing Finance Committee members and declared his full support for the moderator. “Are we neighbors or are we not?” he asked.
East Bare Hill Road resident Steve O’Brien explained that the Finance Committee represents the town as a whole and must balance differing interests. “There’s a better chance for that if it is selective not elective,” he said. Speaking of term limits, he argued, “I don’t see the value. There are constantly new members and new people with great perspectives.” He supported the idea of a committee of individuals to review appointments by following agreed-upon procedures.
No change at all to the mechanism of appointing Finance Committee members was the chorus from residents Larry Finnegan and Jeff Harris. “It is imperative that we have a FinCom that is chosen by an independent source,” said Finnegan. Harris expressed concern about the shortage of volunteers in Harvard, especially with a job as difficult as the Finance Committee.
Looking at the forest instead of the trees, resident Piali De delighted in the process of deciding “how we govern ourselves. It’s a freedom we have,” she said. “It’s absolutely awesome!”
Candleberry Road resident and former town administrator Paul Cohen expressed concern that, “by voting for the study committee, it implies that we think that something is wrong with the current method,” the method used by most towns. He added his opinion that the Finance Committee as appointed by the moderator is independent and that perhaps if voters are dissatisfied, they should elect a different moderator.
Woodside Road resident Chris Ashley warned, “There may be a need for change, but don’t rush into it.” Marinelli reminded the assembly that the study group is only to study whether to change, and added that it would be a committee of town meeting, not of one of the boards. He and the selectmen accepted Sklar’s request that one of the two public members be a signer of the citizens’ petition, at which point Sklar agreed to withdraw Article 19.
