Corrected and updated at 12:50, June 13, 2014.
Pete Jackson introduces an article at the 2012 Annual Town Meeting. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The longtime chairman of the Town Hall Building Committee (THBC) abruptly resigned this week, describing the process leading to the latest plans for the building as “deeply flawed” and at odds with the wishes of Town Meeting.
Peter Jackson, who has led the committee since 2012, announced his decision Monday, June 9, in a letter of resignation handed to Town Clerk Janet Vellante. Town officials were just learning of the decision as this week’s edition of the Press was being readied for publication.
Jackson’s discontent has been building since November 2013. Following the defeat of a request for additional funds to implement his committee’s detailed design for Town Hall, the selectmen told the THBC to suspend any further work on its plan. Instead, the BOS itself took on the job of creating a new cost-driven design using the existing footprint of the building. While the building committee has continued to meet and discuss the BOS plan, the selectmen, according to Jackson, have ignored its input.
Questioning plan 1B
In his letter Jackson stated, “I am unwilling to spend personal time or risk my reputation to participate in the Board of Selectmen’s deeply flawed formulation process for Town Hall renovation. I remain unconvinced that the board’s plan 1B is the most feasible plan or one that should be implemented under the authority granted by the April 2012 Annual Town Meeting.”
Over the past seven months, Jackson has made no secret of his opposition. In a “Consider This” piece published by the Press on May 16, Jackson criticized the selectmen for considering only one design alternative and “getting mired in the details of [its] floor layouts.” He also criticized them for ignoring input from the THBC, citing the qualifications of the committee members and their experience with the project.
Offer of envelope
analysis rejected
Jackson said the board also turned down the offer of a free two-hour envelope analysis by a colleague of his who is a nationally known expert on building enclosures and the founder of the Boston Society of Architects Building Enclosure Council. When the selectmen issued an RFP of its own for the work, it received a single bid of $7,000 for an analysis that Selectman Stu Sklar called “a joke,” as previously reported (see “BOS disappointed in bid to analyze Town Hall envelope,” the Press, June 6, 2014).
The Press reached out to town officials on Tuesday for comment, but a glitch in Charter’s email service prevented at least two messages from reaching the Press in time for the print edition. Selectman Marie Sobalvarro wrote, “I have a great deal of respect for Pete’s years-long commitment to the Town Hall project and his extensive professional background. Without his efforts and those of other former Municipal Building Committee members, it’s unlikely that the project would have proceeded this far. I understand his frustration with the reduced scope,” Sobalvarro continued. “All of us had hoped that a more extensive renovation and expansion would have been attainable within the 2012 appropriation, and I recognize that the current options available, given present funding and increasing escalation costs, are very far from Pete’s vision of the renovated Town Hall.”
Lucy Wallace, writing on behalf of the board, said, “It is with great regret we accept Pete Jackson’s resignation from the Town Hall Building Committee. Over the last few years Pete has done an outstanding job leading a committee through the arduous process of developing conceptual, schematic, and detailed design plans for this important historic structure. His ability to listen, consider options and bring people together on a plan was, in no small measure, a reason for its successful endorsement by the 2012 Annual Town Meeting.”
“However,” she continued, “the reality of the bids that came in and the funding that was available have caused us to reconsider our options. And we are now in that process. We hope that Pete will continue to offer his advice and input as we seek a way forward.”
When asked for his reaction, Town Administrator and THBC committee member Tim Bragan said, “I was surprised. It’s always sad to see people leave boards and committees after giving so much time and energy to them.”
THBC member Eric Broadbent had this to say: “I have never known anyone with the amount of dedication to public service that Pete has demonstrated. Instead of being ignored and criticized, Pete’s long service to the town, monumental patience, knowledge of public projects, and continued focus on the needs of the Town Hall and the decisions of Harvard voters should be appreciated and graciously utilized by the BOS.”
Jackson’s work on the Town Hall project is not his first. He was co-chairman of the Library Building Committee, considered one of Harvard’s most successful civic projects. He was appointed to the Municipal Buildings Committee in 2010, a committee that was asked to recommend how to optimize, renovate, and reuse the space in town-owned buildings for municipal offices, community center, senior center or other uses, including lease or sale. The following year Jackson was appointed to the Municipal Building Committee, charged with developing schematic designs for the renovation of Town Hall and Hildreth House. After the 2012 Annual Town Meeting vote to appropriate $3.97 million to implement the MBC’s Town Hall design, Jackson was appointed to the Town Hall Building Committee.
Unfazed by criticism
Throughout his tenure as THBC chairman Jackson has faced criticism, but he says none of it is responsible for his decision to resign. He told the Press that over the past three years, Still River resident Deborah Skauen-Hinchcliffe had submitted at least four public document requests for the release of “hundreds” of the emails exchanged between THBC committee members. After her most recent request in March 2014, Skauen-Hinchcliffe filed a complaint against Jackson, citing an email that had been sent to a quorum of committee members. Such communications are forbidden under the state’s open meeting law.
Though the email in question was a technical violation of the law, Jackson says, its distribution was accidental and without consequence. “All the issues included in the emails that [Skauen-Hinchcliffe] cited were discussed or voted on in open, posted meetings of the THBC,” said Jackson. “Nothing was hidden from the public.” The incident arose, he said, when someone hit the ‘reply all’ button on their email. Jackson has since written a formal letter of apology to the town to resolve the matter.
Appointments to the THBC are up at the end of June. Whether to continue those appointments, or even the committee itself, are matters that will be taken up by the BOS at its next meeting on June 17.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected and updated to acknowledge and incorporate responses from selectwomen Marie Sobalvarro and Lucy Wallace. Due to an unfortunate interruption of email service at Charter Communications on Tuesday, the Press never received their messages and incorrectly assumed that neither they nor their fellow selectmen had responded to our requests for comment. Sobalvarro and Wallace had in fact answered in a timely manner, and we have incorporated their statements into this updated version of the article.
