When the Finance Committee gathered last month for its first meeting of the new fiscal year, it did so without its longest-serving member, 40-year veteran Steve Colwell, who was not reappointed when his most recent three-year term expired June 30.
The decision not to reappoint Colwell was made by newly elected Town Moderator Bill Barton, who announced his appointments to fill four open seats on the committee in a June 22 email to Town Clerk Marlene Kenney and other Town Hall officials, but did not copy either the Select Board or other FinCom members.
Colwell was one of four committee members up for reappointment this year. The others were voting member John Seeley and nonvoting associate members Peter Dubois and Jennifer Finch. Voting members serve three-year terms; nonvoting associates serve one-year terms. At a FinCom meeting this spring, all four had said they wished to serve again.
Steve Colwell (second from left) confers with FinCom Chairman Don Ludwig at Town Meeting, May 5, 2018. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
After interviewing seven candidates, including the four whose terms were expiring, Barton chose a different course. While he appointed Seeley to another term, he elevated Finch to full voting membership, filling the seat previously held by Colwell. He did not reappoint associate member Dubois but appointed instead former Selectman Leo Blair and one-year resident Siko Sikochi, an associate professor at the Harvard Business School, to fill the two open associate membership seats. Both had submitted volunteer forms in late May. Barton interviewed but passed over a seventh candidate, Ed Moussouris of Park Lane, who had applied the previous year. Town Administrator Tim Bragan said in a meeting this week that it was unusual to have more applications than available seats on the committee.
Once he had made his appointments, Barton called the seven candidates to tell them of his decision, but news of the changes was slow to reach town officials and residents. Finance Committee Chairman Don Ludwig told the Press he first heard of the changes secondhand from Seeley and later confirmed them via an exchange of emails with Barton. “I played no role in the process,” Ludwig said. “Like everyone else, I assumed Steve and Peter would be reappointed.”
While the names and terms of committee members were updated on the town website, the first public announcement that Colwell had been passed over came from Bragan at the July 10 meeting of the Select Board. “This will be the first time in 40 years that Mr. Colwell will not be on the committee,” he informed the board. “I personally want to extend my sincere thanks to Steve for his 40 years of service.”
Officials and residents react
Three weeks later, at the July 31 meeting of the Select Board, Don Green of Oak Hill Road spoke during public comment, saying that the decision was “not sitting well” with him. “I was shocked and disappointed,” he said. He said someone who had worked as a volunteer for so many years on behalf of the town deserved more than a phone call. “I know it’s the new procedure, I am not happy with it.”
Green’s appearance sparked a long series of comments on Nextdoor Harvard, with officials who had served with Colwell on FinCom and other committees and residents who valued his service lamenting the loss of his institutional knowledge and the apparent lack of gratitude for his 40 years as a volunteer.
Neither Barton nor Colwell was willing to comment, but both confirmed with the Press they were meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the matter. Ludwig and Bragan told the Press that FinCom and the Select Board were planning to recognize Colwell at an event later this summer.
Colwell first joined FinCom in 1978. “That was the year I graduated high school,” Ludwig mused in a phone interview this week. Colwell and his family have lived in Harvard since 1975. He was named Harvard Citizen of Note in 2003, at which time he had already served 25 years on FinCom. “Does anyone remember when Steve wasn’t on the Finance Committee?” the 2003 Town Report asked. He has been FinCom’s liaison to the School Committee for almost as many years and known for his careful editing of the yearly “Report of the Finance Committee.” He was credited in the 2003 citation as someone who works “towards a common solution, one that is fair and acceptable to all … He has an uncanny sense of what the town will support and what it won’t.”
The town moderator has been responsible for appointing the members of the Finance Committee for as long as anyone can remember. Charter Commission Chair and former Town Administrator Paul Cohen said in a brief phone interview this week that the role of the committee is to serve Town Meeting as an independent advisory body whose job is to review the budget proposals of the Select Board and recommend whether to adopt, reject, or revise them. The town charter, approved by Annual Town Meeting this spring, calls for the moderator to “exercise due care in the process of selecting members to ensure that the committee represents a cross section of the town as a whole.” While the Charter Commissioners did consider imposing term limits on committee members, they decided against it. Cohen told the Press he was surprised that someone of Colwell’s experience was not reappointed. “I worked closely with Steve and saw firsthand his dedicated knowledge and commitment to the town,” he wrote on Nextdoor Harvard. “His institutional knowledge is irreplaceable. I can’t imagine any direction that wouldn’t include Steve as a positive contributor.”
