With work on the fiscal 2014 annual budget about to intensify, the committee responsible for distributing nearly a quarter million dollars of taxpayer and state money for town projects this year has filled its last open position.
Meeting jointly, the seven-member Community Preservation Committee (CPC) and Selectmen voted 7-6 to appoint Elizabeth Williams of Granite View Lane to fill the elected seat left empty by the resignation of Steve Rowse of Old Littleton Road.
It was the second of two votes. Minutes before, the committee and Selectmen rejected the application of Willie Wickman of Willow Road by an identical 7-6 vote, this time with the names of those voting “yay” and “nay” reversed.
The Community Preservation Committee recommends how money raised by a special 1.1 percent surcharge on Harvard property taxes —and supplemented by state aid—will be spent in the coming year. By state law, the money must be used for historical preservation, affordable housing, and open or recreational space.
Each year, groups in town apply to the committee for grants, and the committee recommends to Town Meeting which to approve. In its Annual Report last December, the Community Preservation Committee estimated it had roughly $455,000 to spend in the current fiscal year, but approved requests that would have amounted to half that sum, including debt service on $1 million of the amount the town will borrow to renovate Town Hall.
Because the Community Preservation Committee must balance how its funds are allocated, five of its members are appointed by town boards and committees, including the Planning Board, the Historical Commission, Parks and Recreation, the Conservation Commission, and the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust. The remaining four members are elected. The seat filled at the Dec. 18 vote was an elected seat, whose term expires in 2013, requiring the approval of both boards.
Both applicants were present at the hearing. Wickman, who served on the School Committee for 11 years and helped lead the Pilot Project at the Old Library, called the preservation committee “a little gem.”
“It would be nice to serve on a committee that has a little bit of money to use that’s not tied to the omnibus budget,” she said.
Williams is a self-described “13-year” resident of Harvard. She was a member of the Friends of the Harvard Library for eight years, she said, and has done financial work for a local law firm. As a real estate paralegal, she added, “I know the area.”
“[The Community Preservation Committee] is a vital part of the community,” said Williams. “[It] has been instrumental in keeping the history and beauty of Harvard. I feel I just want to be part of that.”
The two candidates were asked whether they favored an increase in the tax surcharge that funds the committee from 1.1 to 3 percent. Town Meeting narrowly rejected that change last spring.
“I think it should be tabled until the economy does pick up,” answered Williams. “Right now we’re all being taxed from too many directions.”
Wickman said she “would be interested in revisiting it.”
“I think it is something we should continue to look at year after year to see if this might be the right year,” she said.
The discussion and vote that followed does have a backstory.
On Dec. 4, when the Community Preservation Committee and Selectmen met for the first time to fill the vacancy, former Selectman Leo Blair and Wickman were the two applicants. Wickman was in New Zealand. Blair was a member of the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, and there was concern this would give the trust an unfair two-vote advantage; the vote to appoint Blair failed in a 6-6 tie.
This week Blair returned as a voting member of the CPC, having been selected to represent the housing trust, of which he is now chairman.
At the Dec. 4 meeting there had also been objections from some members of the preservation committee that, because Wickman had never attended one of their meetings, she should be disqualified.
This time, at the Dec. 18 meeting, Selectmen Chair Lucy Wallace noted that neither Wickman nor Williams had been to a Community Preservation Committee meeting.
“Are you less concerned about that at this point?” she asked CPC members. “Do you think either candidate will be able to pick up where you are in your grant review?”
“Last time,” said Community Preservation Committee Chair Deborah Ricci, “we were looking at one who had not. This week they both have not, so they are both in the same position.”
Asked if she could work with either candidate, Ricci said yes.
When it came time to vote, Blair objected to the process, in which the candidates were to be nominated one at a time.
“It might be that there were more people in favor of the second candidate, which we wouldn’t know if the first candidate is approved,” he said.
“This is how we usually do joint appointments,” replied Wallace. “We do them one at a time.”
“My understanding,” said selectman Ricci,” is that if you want to express your support for the second candidate, you have to vote ‘no’ for the first.”
“So whoever’s nominated first has an advantage,” said Blair.
“Not necessarily,” said Wallace.
“If you vote no on the first candidate,” said Deborah Ricci, “that doesn’t mean you would not ever want them on the CPC. All it means is that you would prefer the second candidate among the two.”
When it came time to vote, Selectmen Wallace, Tim Clark, and Marie Sobalvarro voted for Wickman; Ron Ricci and Bill Johnson and five CPC members voted against. On the nomination of Williams, the votes were exactly reversed.
