In less than 15 minutes Tuesday, the Select Board appointed 10 new people to six town boards and committees (see chart below). In a later vote, they also reappointed 45 people who had volunteered to continue as members of the 25 boards and committees on which they already serve.
The Conservation Commission was the only committee that drew more candidates than its three openings. The commission itself had recommended the reappointment of the three current members: longtime member and former chair Paul Willard; eight-year member Joanne Ward; and associate member Eve Wittenberg, who was appointed last year to a one-year term, as is usual for associate members. Brian Sage, Daniel Tracey, and Robert Douglas had also applied for seats on the commission. Douglas currently chairs the Deer Management Subcommittee.
Select Board member Rich Maiore moved to reappoint the three current members, following the commission’s recommendation, and the board voted unanimously to do so. They thanked Douglas, Sage, and Tracey for volunteering.
Following the vote, Select Board Chair Alice von Loesecke said, “I rarely have to get involved in mediating disputes between other boards, but unfortunately I did have to get involved several times” in the relationship between ConCom and the Deer Management Subcommittee. Overall, von Loesecke said, “Everyone is in violent agreement” in supporting deer hunting, and the two groups have committed to a better working relationship and more open communication in the future.
In spite of new appointments and reappointments, a number of committee positions remain unfilled. The Select Board agreed to return to this problem in a later meeting.
The town charter assigns responsibility for filling empty seats to the Select Board—with the exception of the Finance Committee vacancies and two citizen-at-large seats on the Capital Planning and Investment Committee, which are the responsibility of the town moderator, Bill Barton.
