For the past year, local committees studying the future governance of Devens have assumed that once the former military base is fully developed, MassDevelopment, the agency charged with that task, will close up shop and leave.
But at a recent monthly meeting of the Devens Committee, an elected five-member panel of residents that advises MassDevelopment, acting Devens Executive Vice President Meg Delorier said that was not the case.
“MassDevelopment is done when … the Commonwealth tells us we’re done,” Delorier said at the Aug. 9 meeting.
Chapter 498, the 1994 act that created Devens, does not specify a date for MassDevelopment’s departure. What Chapter 498 does require is that no later than July 1, 2030, the agency and the towns of Shirley, Harvard, and Ayer begin a joint study of available options for the future permanent governance of Devens. That study and its recommendations are due to the governor and Legislature by July 1, 2033.
Local government services are provided today by MassDevelopment and paid for with business and resident property taxes. Tax rates are set by the MassDevelopment board of directors, who also approve the community’s annual budget. But unlike the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, Devens residents have no say in either their taxes or the budget.
MassDevelopment President and CEO Dan Rivera has been quoted as saying that the agency does not expect to be involved in the governance of Devens once its work of redevelopment is done. “We have no dog in that fight,” he told the Ayer Select Board more than a year ago. But last Wednesday Delorier reminded listeners that the decision was not the agency’s to make.
“In 2033 the governor and the General Court can say, we like the way things are going in Devens, we don’t want things to change, we don’t think things are ready to change, and MassDevelopment is going to stay in place.”
“MassDevelopment doesn’t have an out,” she added. “Contrary to what some people have heard, MassDevelopment can’t turn around in five years and say, we’re done, we’re turning the lights out, good luck to whatever you decide with disposition. That can’t happen.”
For Mike Alves, vice chair of the Devens Committee, word that MassDevelopment “won’t leave us hanging” was reassuring. “We feel really lucky,” he wrote to the Press. “They care about their work, about Devens, about the businesses and us.”
Harvard Select Board Chair Rich Maiore and Victor Normand, who chairs the Harvard committee studying the future disposition of Devens, were surprised.
Both were present at a Feb. 2022 meeting with Rivera in which he reportedly said MassDevelopment would move on when development was complete.
“Meg’s statement is the first time I’ve heard MassDevelopment float the idea of staying beyond 2033,” wrote Maiore. “This has implications for jurisdiction especially for residents of Devens.”
Said Normand in an email to the Press: “Meg [Delorier] is correct when she says that only legislation can relieve MassDevelopment of its Devens obligations under Charter 498. However, the clear legislative intent was that MassDevelopment would act as the ‘interim’ agency for local governance.” The Massachusetts Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to self-government, he noted, but the current arrangement leaves Devens residents disenfranchised.
The fact that the town clerk function was specifically excluded by Chapter 498 from municipal services to be provided by MassDevelopment is an acknowledgement that representative governance (i.e., voting) was problematic and to be sorted out at a future date, Normand wrote. “So, … in my opinion, the status quo is not a viable option.”
Delorier to remain acting EVP
In other news, Delorier told the Devens Committee last Wednesday that she expected to remain acting executive vice president for Devens indefinitely. “I love what I’m doing. I have a fabulous team, a great group of people that I work with every single day.”
Delorier said there were no plans to replace former EVP Jessica Strunkin, who left in 2022. Strunkin is currently community relations and local government affairs principal at Commonwealth Fusion Systems in Devens.
