Williamstown Select Board Opts Not to Fill Vacant Seat
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday decided not to fill seven months remaining on a vacant seat and instead allow town voters to fill out the board in May's annual town election.
For the second time in a year, the five-person board finds itself down a member. This time, it is due to the resignation of Jeffrey Johnson, who stepped down this fall because of health issues.
Johnson earned his second three-year term on the board in the May 2024 town election, meaning that the remaining two years of his seat will be on the ballot this spring, along with the seats currently held by Stephanie Boyd and Shana Dixon, who was elected last May to fill the final year on Andrew Hogeland's term after he resigned.
When Hogeland stepped down, the board appointed Matthew Neely on an interim basis, and he was elected in his own right to fill an open three-year seat last May.
On Monday evening, Neely was the only one of the four remaining members on the panel advocating for a similar process to fill Johnson's seat from now until the election.
"My personal experience was, I think, a good one," Neely said. "I think almost having that seven-month, I call it a ramp-up to the election, I was obviously a full board member, but I felt it was a probationary period, in a way.
‘I always had every intention to run, but I could use that time to find out what it was like and then run in the spring. For me, it was a good experience."
Neely also argued it was, potentially, good for the town to have a fifth member serve on a short-term basis and learn on the job so that individual would be better prepared if they successfully run for the board in May.
Chair Stephanie Boyd explained to her colleagues that the board had three choices under Massachusetts law: call a special election, appoint an interim member or leave things as they are with four members.
No one on the board indicated a desire to go to the time and expense of running a special election.
Boyd herself said that if the seat was to be filled, she would rather it be chosen by the voters, but she was fine with keeping the vacancy.
Both Peter Beck and Dixon argued against going the appointment route.
"My opinion is: Leave it vacant," Dixon said. "Since the beginning of this term, Jeff wasn't present due to his medical issues. I think we mesh very well together. And I want to avoid any conflict with someone new coming in."
Dixon also said she did not want to have the burden of deciding who to appoint should multiple applicants express an interest in joining the board.
Beck argued that the board is designed to be elected by town residents and should stay an elected body unless there is a compelling reason to appoint an interim member. Although the current configuration of members has not had many "split decisions," Beck argued that even if the body did split, 2-2, on an issue, that would be a feature, not a bug.
"With a 2-2 vote, [the board] is not deadlocked," Beck said. "The motion fails. I do think if you can only convince one other person to vote for your motion, it fails for a reason. You need, whether there are four of us or five of us, to convince two other people."
And he indicated it is particularly important to have thornier issues decided by elected board members.
"If it were a 2-2 vote, and this appointed person was the tie-breaker … I think that hypothetical motion should fail, and adding a fifth vote for it that we picked instead of the residents of the town, I don't know that that's a beneficial outcome," Beck said.
"I don't have a problem with appointing someone. It's just not my preference. I want those people to run."
The board voted 4-0 not to seek applicants for an interim appointment.
In other business on Monday night, the board appointed David Westall to fill an open seat on the town's Board of Registrars that was filled by Bob Jones, who died in August. The board also heard reports from the chair of the town's Agricultural Commission and officials from the Hoosic Water Quality District about their operations. Town Manager Robert Menicocci said that the town may be in line for a six-figure Community One Stop for Growth Grant for a study of the Main Street (Route 2) Corridor from Field Park to Southworth Street.
And Beck shared language for a potential home rule petition that the board might send to town meeting this spring.
He suggested the town may want to follow the path of other municipalities in the commonwealth and ask the Legislature for permission to allow official notices of public hearings on the town's website instead of the current system of posting notices in a "newspaper of general circulation."
Beck said the switch, if approved by town meeting and, ultimately, Bacon Hill, would save the town anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the year, in costs for advertisements.
Beck shared a model bylaw from another town that already had its home rule petition approved by the Legislature and suggested board members think about whether to include it on the annual town meeting warrant when the warrant is compiled in late winter and early spring.
None of the Select Board members raised an objection to the idea. One resident addressed the board via Zoom to point them toward a recent Berkshire Eagle editorial advocating for a continuation of the current system of government subsidies for print newspapers.
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