George McKenna (left) speaks with Bob Thurston at Annual Town Meeitng in 2012. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Long-time Finance Committee member George McKenna announced this week that he will not serve another term on the committee. His current term ended on June 30.
“Everything comes to an end at some time,” McKenna said when contacted by the Press. And in his case, the end came after some 17 years of service on FinCom, comprising nearly 6,000 hours of committee work, according to his own records.
Asked about his time on the committee, McKenna said, “It’s a learning process. Each year you get better at it. . . . Hopefully, it’s better for the whole town.”
‘We owe George a vote of thanks’
Town Moderator Bob Eubank, whose job includes appointing members of the Finance Committee, also emphasized the value of McKenna’s depth of experience with town finances. “The town should be grateful for these years of commitment and service,” he said. “FinCom is one of the most important committees in town, and we owe George a vote of thanks. . . . Experience really counts—knowing how the system works, where the reports are, and what issues are really important. George’s experience was really valuable.”
McKenna said he had “no particular reason” for stepping down at this time. However, he said, “During the past year, some of the letters attacking the purpose and intent” of actions by the Capital and Investment Committee (CPIC), on which he also served, had “soured the effort.”
In recalling significant developments during his years on the committee, McKenna said that the most discouraging event was the failure of “the early venture into Devens, working out the [2B] model.” The complex 2B scenario called, in part, for the creation of a new town of Devens, along with returning the Barnum Road area to Harvard.
“We needed revenue, and state aid was dropping at the time,” McKenna said. “I saw it as a quick fix, but maybe not the long-term fix,” he said, adding that he believed the agreements could always have been modified later. Harvard voted down the 2B scenario at a Special Town Meeting in October 2006.
Town faces challenges
Looking at town finances today, McKenna says, “We still have some challenges ahead of us. We have capital needs that are not being addressed and liabilities [for retirement benefits of town employees]. . . For better or worse, Harvard is a bedroom community, and the reliance on homeowners for all our revenue is a problem.”
McKenna’s volunteer work with town government has included serving on the 2002 Master Plan Steering Committee, two Devens committees, two search committees for town finance directors, and the personnel committee. He is also stepping down from the Capital Planning and Investment Committee, on which he has served since its inception; he was also a member of its predecessor, the Capital Committee.
For many years McKenna also held the contract as Harvard’s town auditor. He resigned from that position in October 2007, when he said that the independence of his management report had been impugned during the public debate leading up to a Special Town Meeting vote to censure the School Committee.
