Southwick Town Meeting members raise their hands during a vote May 21, 2019. (Hope E. Tremblay Photo)
SOUTHWICK – Town Meeting Tuesday approved a petition to have voters elect four of the nine members of the Community Preservation Committee. The remaining members would continue to be appointed by town boards. Currently, the Southwick Select Board appoints those four members.
The article passed by a vote of 73-61.
Petition author Michelle Pratt said “maybe the decision for what’s best for everyone should be decided by everyone.”
Public discussion of the article turned to the issue of North Pond and the vote of the CPC against additional funding of the project after approving $1 million towards the purchase of land for preservation. Ultimately, the additional funding went to a special town meeting vote and was approved. Some Town Meeting members Tuesday questioned the reason why some CPC members were appointed and one former CPC member, John Whalley, accused the Select Board of kicking him off the committee in order to replace him and other members with members that would vote down the North Pond project.
Town Meeting member Laura Stopa questioned why three family members and the wife of a selectman were appointed to the CPC.
Robert Horacek, a member of both the CPC and finance committee said family members were not appointed by the Select Board, however, his sister-in-law is an elected member of the Housing Authority and that group appointed her to serve on the CPC.
CPC member Karen DeMaio spoke out and said she was upset that her motivations, as a CPC member, were being questioned.
“I asked a lot of questions of a lot of people,” she said, citing local boards and committees as well as banking institutions. “I did my due diligence. For you to imply that I was irresponsible is totally outrageous.”
Another petition article, to elect members of the finance committee, failed to pass with a vote of 82-48.
The town moderator appoints members of that committee.
Voters against the two petitions cited difficulty in getting residents to run for elected positions.
“I’ve been on the Select Board for four years and every year we beg, plead and ask people to come out for these boards,” said Selectman Douglas Moglin, adding that if the petitions passed he feared the town would “not get a full slate of applicants” for the seats.
Town Moderator James Putnam temporarily handed control of the meeting to Town Clerk Michelle Hill so he could speak as a resident during discussion of articles six and seven. He also said that there are not enough people willing to come forward for elected seats and he took an informal poll of the audience to ask how many people had approached him to be appointed to the finance committee. Just two hands were raised, and when he asked how many people would consider running for a finance committee seat, six hands were raised.
Putnam then asked residents to keep local politics more civil than national politics.
“I’m disappointed to see what’s going on in DC with attack politics,” he said. “We don’t need that kind of politics in this town.”
Pratt noted that the only negative attacks she saw were on social media, and not from the petitioners.
Pratt said she and the other petitioners “are very appreciative” of the hard work of town board and committee members.
Chelsea Pratt said the issue of elected versus appointed members seems to be accountability.
“I think the thing we’re all looking for is accountability,” Chelsea Pratt said.
Article supporter Kelly Parker said she, too, appreciates the volunteers who serve the town, but wants residents to have more say.
“When you include people in the decision-making process, they tend to be more invested,” Parker said. She also said that the park and recreation commission is elected, and so should the finance committee.
Resident Jean Reopel pointed out that the election last week had low voter turnout and one contested race.
“I was the 31st person to vote last week – and it was 12 p.m.,” she said.
“Our community is not invested. No one cares about what’s on these papers except the 150 of us here tonight,” she added, referring to the Town Meeting Warrant.
Town Meeting approved the budget as well as borrowing $2 million for road repairs. In the middle of discussion of road needs, Selectman Russell Fox received a text from state Sen. Donald F. Humason who wrote that the Senate had just passed an additional $85,000 for Southwick road needs.
A $300,000 appropriation was also approved for the design of renovations at the Southwick Fire Department. Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart noted that Town Meeting approved a building study several years ago and several recommendations for maintenance came from the study, including improvements at the station.
