Of all the tasks the Board of Selectmen must complete in 2012, the one that continues to divide its members the most is its charge to develop plans for the renovation of Town Hall and Hildreth House in time for Annual Town Meeting next spring.
The divide was once again evident this week as selectmen argued over which recommendations to accept from a memo submitted to them by the outgoing Municipal Buildings Committee, as well as how best to recruit and hire a project manager and architect to start work on schematic designs for the two buildings, and what the makeup should be of the building committee or committees that will oversee their work.
Selectman Tim Clark
The MBC memo, sent to the BOS May 13, contained six recommendations. “It’s our swan song,” said MBC Chairman Ron Ostberg on Tuesday evening. “We don’t presume it’s been agreed to. It’s our opinion from our professional and political positions.”
The BOS voted unanimously to accept the first of the MBC’s recommendations, the most time-critical of the six, while accepting elements of a fifth and deferring the rest. By unanimous vote, the selectmen agreed to recruit a committee to prepare a request for services (RFS) as soon as possible for an Owner’s Project Manager (OPM), as now required by state law, and an architect-engineer (A/E) to do the design. The MBC estimated that the procurement of those two professionals could take as long as eight weeks, but could be done in time to start work on schematic designs by Oct. 3.
The selectmen balked, however, when it came to a related recommendation that the so-called RFS committee remain seated for the rest of the year to oversee the creation of the building schematics, the advantage being that there is other work such a committee could start while the procurement of an OPM and A/E are underway.
Selectmen Ron Ricci and Bill Johnson argued that the two phases—writing an RFS and overseeing development of designs—should be separated, and that appointment of a larger oversight committee could wait until later. While the other selectmen eventually accepted that conclusion, the question of who would appoint the RFS committee opened a new rift. Johnson proposed that the task be delegated to Town Administrator Tim Bragan.
“It’s a pro-cure-ment,” he said, emphasizing each syllable of an oft-repeated word of the evening. But Selectman Tim Clark and Chairwoman Marie Sobalvarro were not comfortable with that solution, and it was apparent that both Clark and Selectman Peter Warren would have preferred to appoint members from the MBC that evening to do the work. Either way, as Bragan made clear, once he and Finance Director Lorraine Leonard had the RFS in hand, they would handle the actual procurement.
“Can I be blunt?” asked Clark. “The issue is that we have come through a difficult political event” that “got us through Town Meeting. There are very strong feelings within this board and within the public. We now have specific direction from Town Meeting,” he said. “We [as a board] have to get to some place where we have trust and a comfort level with the group that goes forward. We need to take small steps to repair the trust between the board members and the public and the [MBC] committee members. I think that’s where our problem lies.”
Here Sobalvarro intervened, saying that her lesson from the efforts to reach agreement at Town Meeting is “that things will move forward if there is a compromise.” “We’re all here together, “she said. We’re going to be together for the next year. We have a task ahead of us, and we have a deadline. What can we come up with that feels comfortable, recognizing that we have some folks with in-depth expertise [on the MBC], we need to have a more inclusive and open committee, and we have Tim and Lorraine with their procurement expertise.”
It was Ricci who, after listening to further discussion between Clark and Johnson and hearing a possible compromise, finally put a motion on the table, moving that the selectmen resort to their standard procedure for appointing an advisory committee and create an ad hoc group specifically to write the RFS and oversee selection of an OPM and A/E. The all-volunteer committee will consist of a chairman with experience in managing a building committee, an architect with experience with historic buildings, a civil engineer with experience with site issues, and a contractor. Only Warren voted against the compromise, objecting that the vote was not on the agenda.
“What we’re doing is inappropriate,” he said. He was overruled by Sobalvarro.
“It’s a baby step,” said Clark. Hopefully, he added, members of the current MBC would step forward to help write the RFS.
Word of the new committee and its openings will be posted this week on the town website.
