by CHRIS LINDAHL
@cmlindahl
Daily Hampshire Gazette
SOUTHAMPTON — Both men vying for a seat on the Board of Health agree that the now-vacant heath agent position should remain a salaried position and not paid on an “as needed basis.”
A question about paying a health agent as a contractor was asked of Jeffrey M. Dugas and Charles D. Kaniecki at a candidate’s forum Monday night at Town Hall. The forum brought together candidates for the three contested races to be decided at the May 4 election: Board of Health, Select Board and Hampshire Regional School Committee.
Southampton has been without a health agent since January and has struggled to keep the position filled in recent years. Board of Health chairwoman Lisa Brodeur-McGan told the Select Board earlier this month that the town has trouble attracting and retaining qualified candidates to the position because the pay for the 31-hour per week position is too low. The previous agent made $26,000.
Both candidates cited the wide breath of roles an agent fills, including restaurant inspections, insuring safety of the water supply and managing disease outbreaks.
“I think the health agent in town needs to be much more proactive than ‘as needed,’” Dugas said, adding that a productive agent is one that spends time staying up to date on new codes.
Kaniecki agreed, saying “I think having a full-time agent is a good idea and we should stick with that.”
Dugas and Kaniecki are competing for one, three-year seat on the board. Dugas works in a management role at a construction company. Kaniecki performs housing code inspections for the city of West Springfield.
Monday’s forum also featured comments from two of three candidates — incumbent David McDougall and challenger Charles J. Kaniecki — seeking two seats on the Select Board. Shannon Cutler, a third candidate in the race, did not attend because she was sick.
McDougall, a physician, was first elected to the Select Board in 2004. He did not run for re-election in 2011, but was elected again in 2012.
Charles J. Kaniecki, the western Massachusetts district health officer for the state Department of Public Health, is the chairman of the Public Safety Complex Committee and has served in a number of other town positions throughout his life. He is Charles D. Kaniecki’s father.
Asked what the largest issue facing the town is, McDougall cited the widening financial gap between tax revenues and necessary expenditures. Passing a Proposition 2½ override “is probably the only way we’re going to fix that,” he said. “We can’t cut services any further.”
Kaniecki agreed. He suggested regionalizing some services as another potential remedy to the problem of cuts, saying the town must “keep the door open” to that idea.
The candidates were also asked whether they think Select Board members are sufficiently informed prior to taking a vote.
McDougall explained that prior to taking a vote, he makes an effort to speak with Town Administrator Heather Budrewicz and Select Board Chair Elizabeth Moulton to help shape his understanding of an issue. If members of the board do not feel sufficiently informed, he said, they will table a vote. “There’s no reason to rush through it,” he said.
Kaniecki warned of trouble caused by “special interest groups” influencing elected officials prior to those officials receiving all the facts.
The race for School Committee features incumbent Joseph Moynahan and challengers Margaret Larson and Tammy Walunas. The three are running for two, three-year seats on the Hampshire Regional School Committee. Current board member Kimberly Schott is not seeking re-election.
Most questions asked of the candidates centered around the financial health of the school district and the town.
Moynahan, a three-term incumbent and retired teacher and guidance counselor, called the Hampshire Regional budget a fair one “without frills.” He said adequately funded schools are as important as roads, police and fire and suggested petitioning the state for increased funding, especially for the rising cost of transporting the school’s students to Westhampton from four other towns.
Larson, a member of Hampshire’s school council and chairwoman of the town’s Cultural Council, suggested that the budget process would benefit from advanced planning. She said the need to replace the school’s roof in the next 10 years is something that can be planned for. “Some of these very large expenses are not a surprise,” she said.
All three candidates highlighted the importance of retaining students who would otherwise be lost to school choice or charter schools.
“There is one problem, and that is the town of Williamsburg,” Moynahan said, explaining that 37 of its 101 seventh-through-12th-grade students do not attend Hampshire Regional, taking with them a large amount of tuition money. Only 24 of Southampton’s 433 students in those grades choose not to attend Hampshire Regional, he said.
Walunas, who has previously worked in the insurance and financial industries and is now a stay-at-home mom, said as a solution, the school must focus on promoting its wide variety of extracurricular activities like the robotics and music programs to bring in students considering other schools. “All of these are not promoted,” she said.
Larson agreed, and said that the school council created a marketing brochure highlighting programs other than sports. The outreach was in response to a survey of in-district residents about their perceptions of the school.
Asked whether there should be a public hearing prior to a committee vote on a budget, Walunas said she would support it.
“The citizens of Southampton need to be aware of what is happening up at Hampshire,” she said. “They can see where their dollars are being spent … how much it costs to actually get the job done up there, correctly,”
Moynahan said that question was the hardest asked that night. He wondered about the logistics of the public deliberating a budget line-by-line. He considered whether other towns would participate and if school committee members would be bound to vote against a budget if there was not wide support.
The candidates were also asked what they thought of the possibility of assembling a committee made up of members from all five Hampshire towns to “pare down” school expenses.
“Personally I don’t see how we can cut down on expenses,” Moynahan said. “We’re at raw bones budget as it is,” citing that the school does not have the state recommended number of physical education teachers as an example.
Walunas said she thought such a committee would be hard to execute, though did say town residents must ask more questions of officials during the budget process.
Larson said she’s “not opposed” to a inter-town budget committee, though takes issue with the assumption that it would be to make cuts. She said it’s impossible for the school to meet parent demands and state requirements all while cutting the budget.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at [email protected].
