By Dakota Antelman – [email protected]
One week after critics flagged ongoing concerns, other residents pushed back at Monday’s Select Board meeting and defended the panel’s practice of appointing board, committee, and task force members.
One resident said the complaints seem politically motivated.
The Select Board started reviewing its policy later in the meeting as previously planned.
“It’s a good start,” Select Board chair Mary Hartman said moments before the board adjourned.
‘A manufactured problem’
Appointment complaints surfaced around nominations for the Select Board’s new Tax Relief Evaluation Task Force and continued February 24.
Some residents accused the Select Board of violating the appointment policy, known as APP10, and highlighted a provision that says residents should serve on only one committee at a time, with certain exceptions. With several people serving on multiple committees, some speakers accused the Select Board of favoritism and a lack of transparency.
On Monday, resident Craig Awmiller said the complaints seem like “a manufactured problem” intended to hurt Hartman in her current reelection campaign.
In an email Tuesday morning, Hartman said she believes Awmiller’s comments about a political attack “add balance” to accusations at the February 24 meeting.
New Tax Relief Evaluation Task Force member Ellen Quackenbush said that “there’s always room for improvement” on topics such as appointments. She added, though, that the long list of people serving on Concord’s many committees “testifies that the current system is not fundamentally broken.”
Town Meeting Study Committee member Kristen Hagerty said committee membership can involve a significant commitment.
“There is a subset of the population who can invest that time at any given moment,” she said.
A need for data
Hartman opened the door to an APP10 revamp on February 10. She said the document “remains flexible” but said the board will aim to capture current practices as an updated policy.
Select Board member Cameron McKennitt volunteered to draft the revision and led Monday’s conversation to get feedback before putting pen to paper.
Among many other topics, Select Board member Wendy Rovelli said she wants a distinction between situations where one person serves on two unrelated committees and those where a member of one committee also represents that group on another panel.
Rovelli cited the Community Preservation Committee as an example, highlighting how the CPC includes seats for members of the Natural Resources Commission, the Recreation Commission, the Planning Board, the Historical Commission, and the Housing Authority.
McKennitt will bring more information back before the Select Board at a later date for more feedback as the APP10 revision process continues.
