Town Moderator Dave “Doc” Westerling stood before the selectmen Tuesday evening and successfully defended his appointments to a committee studying the manner of selection and length of terms of Finance Committee members. The formation and membership of the committee was mandated by Article 18 at this year’s Annual Town Meeting, which was amended on the floor to include the requirement that one of two members of the public appointed by the moderator must be a signer of the citizens’ petition that put the matter on the warrant . The petition, Article 19, was inserted by a group of citizens seeking elections and term limits for Finance Committee members. It was withdrawn after the approval of the amended Article 18.
A letter written June 8 by Town Administrator Tim Bragan on behalf of the selectmen requested that Westerling reconsider his appointment of “two individuals that have signed the petition … and that by doing so you have not acted within the scope and intent of the article.”
All agreed that Westerling’s appointments met the letter of the law in the warrant article. However, Selectman Bill Marinelli summarized, “I was pretty sure it was not the intent of the selectmen to have two signatories as public members.”
Vice-chairman Bob Eubank asked Westerling if he would have other candidates if he were to reconsider the appointments. Westerling replied that there was one other person, who had withdrawn from consideration due to a possible conflict of interest, and said he had tried recruiting people, with no success. He said he had received a call from resident Steve O’Brien, who was interested in the process but did not wish to serve on the committee, and that he had asked O’Brien and resident Rick Maiore, who was on a previous study committee, to act in an advisory role.
There was vigorous support of the appointments from the public in attendance at the Tuesday evening meeting. School Committee member and petition signer Stu Sklar applauded Westerling for “standing up to whatever this is.” He added, “This is a travesty that the selectmen should question his opinion on this.”
Maria Kaufmann, petition signer and study committee appointee, wondered, “I would really like to know what the objection is to having two petitioners serving.”
“How many people came forward? No one came forward,” said resident Dan Justice.
Petition signers each received a letter about the study committee and a questionnaire to submit if they were interested in serving. Westerling said he received four positive responses, two of which were “only if no one else will do it, and two who were unequivocally willing to serve.” When asked how the general public was invited to volunteer for the second appointment, Westerling answered that there was no special notice, but that it was mentioned in several newspaper articles and at selectmen’s meetings.
The discussion was sometimes heated. “What’s everybody afraid of?” asked Justice. “Why is the FinCom here? They’re lobbying for their jobs.”
These sentiments echoed those in a recent email circulated among townspeople and described by Marinelli as being full of claims and accusations. “It’s extremely distressing,” Marinelli said. “Volunteers don’t deserve to be treated this way or described in this manner.”
Finance Committee member George McKenna argued for fairness and for honoring the intent of the wording. “People left Town Meeting thinking there would be one signer and one general member,” he said.
Selectman Randy Dean spoke of the elephant on the table. “We’re fighting about school dollars by going after a group that has a history of pushing back at the schools,” he said. It was his opinion that with two petition signers on the nine-person committee, there would be five to six votes “already biased toward school spending.” That said, Dean was in favor of moving on, saying they had spent too much time on the membership of a committee whose role is to make a recommendation for voters to debate at town meeting.
Selectman Tim Clark expressed satisfaction with a thorough process and said, “I think we need to accept whomever Doc chooses.”
Having heard the discussion, Westerling told the board that he would not be reconsidering his appointments. As it stands, the committee will consist of Westerling; two representatives each from the Finance Committee, the School Committee, and the Board of Selectmen; and the two petition signers to represent the general public.
