Janet Vellante was elected town clerk in May 1994, nearly 22 years ago, and has served in that position ever since. Greg Newman is in his first term as town constable, having been elected in 2015. Both offices—town clerk and constable—go back to the earliest days of Harvard’s history. But if two warrant articles slated for a vote at Annual Town Meeting pass, Vellante and Newman will be the last people elected to those offices. Future clerks and constables will be appointed, not elected.
At the selectmen’s yearly planning meeting last May, Selectwoman Lucy Wallace pointed out that, someday, Vellante will retire. Because an elected official must live in town, Harvard would then face the problem of finding a resident qualified to take over the increasingly complicated duties of town clerk. If the office were appointive, however, the selectmen and the town administrator could look beyond Harvard’s borders for a qualified candidate.
Several other selectmen agreed that the office should become an appointed one, with Selectman Leo Blair saying the decision was a “no brainer.” But there was also general agreement to make the change only if Vellante supported it.
Vellante acknowledged in a recent interview that she had had only limited qualifications for the office when she began, having been a middle school teacher and then a homemaker. “I came in cold,” she said.
However, by attending numerous classes, seminars, and conferences related to her official duties, Vellante is now ranked a “master municipal clerk”—one of about 20 town clerks out of 351 in the state to achieve that level. The certificate hangs in her office, a testament to her passing a 15-hour test with 200 highly technical questions about state and local regulations and practices.
During town budget cuts in 2008–2009, Vellante said, she was told that either her work hours or her education budget would likely be cut. She pleaded to keep the education budget intact and cut her hours instead, because the coursework is essential to doing the clerk’s job well.
Elections are a major responsibility
When she came into office, Vellante recalled, Harvard still used paper ballots that had to be counted by hand. In the first election she oversaw, the counters did not finish tallying the votes until 2:45 a.m. Among the volunteers for that grueling process was Pat Groeninger, then chairwoman of the Finance Committee. Within a year, FinCom recommended funds for electronic voting machines.
Elections are the most complex aspects of the town clerk’s position Vellante said, because the rules change almost every year. Among the changes she has seen are those of the Help America Vote Act (adding voting machines for those whose vision is impaired), the use of provisional ballots if there is a question about a voter’s eligibility, e-ballots for citizens serving overseas, and online registration through the Motor Voter Act.
As town clerk, Vellante records many aspects of town life. Who was born, who died, who owns a dog, what town committee is meeting tonight—all that information and more flows through her office. Vital records (births and deaths) are now kept electronically, but the older archives are in the town vault, of which she is keeper. She also oversees the project to restore and preserve these historic documents.
Vellante has created a database for the deeds of all the property owned by the town. (The paper deeds were stored in a large cardboard box when she took over the job.) She sees to the electronic posting of all official committee and board meetings, in compliance with the state’s Open Meeting Law. Also under the terms of that law, she updates the online minutes of those boards and committees, as well as keeping a hard copy.
If Harvard voters approve the article at this year’s Town Meeting, Harvard would join about a third of the towns in Massachusetts whose town clerks are appointed, not elected. Of the town clerks in 351 towns and cities in Massachusetts, an estimated 119 are appointed, while 232 are elected, according to the election division in the Massachusetts secretary of state’s office. Figures are inexact, the election division official said, because towns don’t always report a change.
If approved, the change would take effect in 2018, at the end of Vellante’s current term. She would be eligible to continue in office as an appointed official.
Investigator hopes for constable position
In contrast to the town clerk, the town constable’s job has become more limited over the years, said Greg Newman. “The constable used to have much more power, but it’s been restricted,” Newman said in a telephone interview (see “Constables of Yore” below). At one point, he explained, the constable had police powers and also civil defense powers in emergencies.
Today, Harvard’s constable is a volunteer whose regular duty is posting the warrant for Town Meeting in public places around town—the post offices, Hildreth House, and the Harvard Public Library. Traditionally, Newman said, a retired police officer has held the position. Massachusetts constables can also serve a range of civil papers such as summonses, subpoenas, eviction notices, demands for child support, and various warrants, depending on local regulations.
The request to have an appointed constable and deputies came from Candleberry Lane resident James Pero, who works as a private investigator and has lived in Harvard since 1998. At the Jan. 5 selectmen’s meeting, Pero said being a constable would enable him to serve legal papers connected with his business.
Pero said in a phone interview that he would be able to serve papers not just in Harvard but in other Massachusetts towns as well. Pero was previously a constable in Somerville, but the position is now restricted to residents. He said his long experience serving papers could be useful in training officers in Harvard.
