The Rochester Select Board’s February 21 meeting began with word that Town Clerk Paul Dawson won’t be seeking reelection and a suggestion the position should change to be appointed instead of elected.
Town Administrator Glenn Cannon revealed Dawson’s recent letter stating that “serious health matters” in his family have made the time he has been able to spend at his job uneven. For that reason, Dawson said in his letter, “I will not seek reelection as town clerk.”
Select Board Chairman Woody Hartley responded there is still time for other candidates to sign up for the 2023 Town Election ballot. But he emphasized another point, that it might be time to look into making town clerk an appointed position. “Paul has done a good job for us as town clerk,” Hartley said. “But it is a job requiring a lot of professional skills.”
Hartley said that is why someone appointed rather than elected every three years would be a better fit for the job of being Rochester’s town clerk. The board then agreed to discuss the matter further at its next meeting on March 6.
Next, Personnel Board Chairman Adam Murphy provided an update on the new panel’s main goal, which is to rewrite and improve the town’s Personnel Bylaw. Murphy said the amount of work that reaching this goal demands means a new bylaw won’t be available for a Town Meeting vote until the fall.
If a Town Meeting is scheduled for October, Personnel Board member Kristine Nash said that would give the town enough time to integrate changed job and salary classifications into the town budget.
Murphy explained a total of 24 employees fall under bylaw provisions that he says should be revised. He said new job descriptions need to be written before a fairer-pay compensation plan can be written. Meanwhile, descriptions for new jobs have had to be created, he said, such as for the newly full-time Zoning Board of Appeals clerk position that the town is on the verge of filling.
Cannon noted the Highway Department is looking to hire a new mechanic, a position that will also need possible reclassification. Because of the work the Personnel Board has done on these new job descriptions, Cannon praised their help for being so good at “meeting our needs, with new positions written and filled.”
William Chamberlain of the town Republican Committee then asked the Select Board to recommend that every town panel recite the Pledge of Allegiance before every meeting. “Either by a citizen petition or the selectmen asking all boards do it,” Chamberlain said. “We are looking for the board’s guidance.”
Cannon reported that town counsel has told him the Select Board cannot mandate that town boards enact such a practice. Hartley said it is a matter of free speech.
Board member Paul Ciaburri proposed the solution, drafting a motion to “encourage” all boards to start their meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance. Hartley agreed.
The board then approved a new Town Counsel policy. To better control how town departments and boards access the town’s legal adviser, such requests must be delivered in writing to the town administrator. A board’s request for opinion and/or use of town counsel must be approved by a majority vote of that board. Requests to initiate litigation or defense will require approval of the Select Board.
The board also approved two athletic events that will travel through town: the Annual Patriot Half-Marathon on June 17 and the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s 17th annual Watershed Ride on August 17.
The board also agreed not to exercise the town’s right of first refusal (to purchase) property at 0 High Street, which is being taken out of Chapter 61A agricultural land protection to site a wireless communications tower there.
Next, the board supported a letter that will permit the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) to test the water flow at Snipatuit Pond. A flow gauge would be installed, Town Planner Nancy Durfee said. ARPA funds totaling $20,000 will fund the beginning of the project, but the measurement project will take one to two years, she said. So more money, Municipal Vulnerability Funds, will be sought later.
Hartley said this will be a way to see if the City of New Bedford is withdrawing too much water from the pond.
The Select Board scheduled its next meeting for Monday, March 6, at 6:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco