Three selectmen candidates, diverse experience and priorities

Among the candidates contending for two seats that will become vacant this spring on the Board of Selectmen (BOS), is a former U.S. Navy submarine commander and former hi-tech business owner, an expert in creating health plans for businesses and government, and a former sales and marketing professional.

Ron Ricci. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
 

Marie Sobalvarro.
 

Stu Sklar .

But for all the diversity of their credentials, Ron Ricci, Marie Sobalvarro, and Stu Sklar seem to share a “civic gene,” one that has led them to invest hours, months, and years of their time as elected officials and volunteers on the boards and committees that make Harvard work.

With the terms of selectmen Ron Ricci and Marie Sobalvarro about to expire, voters will get to decide at town elections this spring who will fill their seats for the next three years. Ron Ricci, who has served the longest, was elected in 2007, the same year that brought former BOS Chairman Leo Blair and current Chairman Peter Warren to the board. Sobalvarro was elected 18 months ago to fill the position left open when Blair resigned. Sklar is the newest candidate, but, like Ricci and Sobalvarro, has previously served on other elected town boards, most recently as a member of the School Committee from 2007 through 2009.

A desire to serve

In interviews with the Press this week, the passion of all three for involvement in town affairs was apparent. Ricci and Sobalvarro want another term to continue work they started during their current terms, including completion of the town center sewer project, scheduled to start this summer; continuing the search for benefit plans that are less expensive for the town but good for town employees; the renovation of town buildings on the Common; opportunities for shared regional services and the future development of Devens; and serving a growing population of seniors.

For Sklar, the motivation is the opportunity to help set and follow through on priorities for the town—which he called “a gem”—over the next three years. “The [BOS] is the executive branch and it gets to frame the debate, but really all of the important decisions are made by the town,” he says. “But the selectmen do get to frame those arguments. I think an important aspect [of the job] is to listen to the town so you frame the arguments correctly.”

All three candidates can justifiably claim to have had a hand in the switch to a new health insurance plan for town employees in 2009, which is saving the town an estimated $200,000 per year, they say. Ricci, the former Navy commander and businessman, takes credit for using his former position as BOS chairman to bring the School Committee, the selectmen and town officials together to get the ball rolling. Sobalvarro, an experienced health-plan consultant, takes credit for crafting the details of the new plan, along with Town Administrator Tim Bragan and Finance Director Lorraine Leonard. Stu Sklar represented the School Committee in subsequent negotiations with the unions and helped the parties come to agreement.

Different takes on the municipal buildings

The candidates do not agree on the one issue that is likely to be the most contentious at Town Meeting next month: what to do with Town Hall, Hildreth House and the old library. Sobalvarro and Sklar support the proposal of the selectmen-appointed Municipal Buildings Committee (MBC), which appears as Article 17 on the Town Meeting warrant, while Ricci supports Article 18, a citizens’ petition that he helped write with Selectman Bill Johnson, with the backing of the Capital Planning and Investment Committee.

“There are things in the MBC plan that I like, but I thought the approach that was being taken was going nowhere,” said Ricci this week. “It will be voted down. Bill [Johnson] and I were both concerned. We want something done [for the town buildings]. We don’t want in any way to preclude making things a lot better at some time in the future, hence the way that the citizens’ petition was drafted. It’s not a slam-dunk,” he said, adding that it has a better chance than Article 17.

The citizens’ petition, he says, recognizes that there are “real problems” with Town Hall that need to be fixed, and proposes that the old library be renovated to house town government while that work is done, a contingency, he notes, that the MBC proposal “does not address.”

Sobalvarro, on the other hand, says she supports Article 17 because she wants “a greater refinement” of the options that the MBC found to be viable possibilities. Neither article, she says, commits the town to a course of action. The MBC article is basically a request to spend more to learn more. With the citizens’ petition, she says, she has yet to see a full report of what would be done if it is approved. “It seems to be a request to create bid-ready documents” for Town Hall and the old library, she says. “I don’t think the town is ready yet to decide that.”

For Sklar, the decision to support Article 17 reflects his faith in the work of the MBC. “If people look at reports done in Harvard in the last 40 years, if this isn’t the best report, it’s tied for the best report. In its 80-page summing up, he says, “[MBC members] outline all the different scenarios. They pick which one they recommend but they lay them all out for people to see. All the MBC is asking for is money to do the design. The town next year could decide not to fund it. This is a step in a long process. I totally support it.”

A love of town

The debate over how best to deal with the long-term vision of the MBC and the more immediate needs of town buildings is only one of many with which the next BOS will have to grapple. Differences of opinion and divided votes are a fact of life. But on one topic, the candidates are united: their love of the town. Ricci, who grew up in the small town of Falmouth, values its size and rural character. “All of our friends are here,” he says. “Whenever we do something socially, it’s with neighbors.”

Sobalvarro says she treasures the vitality of Harvard residents, reflected in the signs on the Common and the volunteers who staff town boards and committees.

Sklar, who moved to Harvard from Bolton, says, “I like the people, I love the town. I think there’s an open-mindedness in Harvard that not all towns possess. A good argument at Town Meeting sways people. Bad argument, watch out; good argument, people are going to vote your way.”

For more information on the three candidates, voters can attend the candidates forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Harvard Press, to be held Monday, March 21, at 7 p.m. in Volunteers Hall at the public library. At the forum, attendees can hear the contenders explain their positions on key issues affecting the town and question them directly. Also, on any given day of the week, voters are likely to encounter them at town gathering spots: at Town Hall or in the old library, at the General Store or Dunkin’ Donuts, at the Transfer Station during collection hours, or at “meet and greet” coffees in private homes. To more fully explore their backgrounds, achievements and positions, as well as upcoming campaign events, voters can check out the candidates’ websites or write them directly at the e-mail addresses below: